Tucker Carlson has claimed that his firing from Fox News was part of the $787.5m defamation settlement between the network and Dominion Voting Systems.
In a new book, the ousted host says that Fox “agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement,” according to The Guardian.
Mr Carlson told biographer Chadwick Moore that the network “had to settle” the case after Dominion sued Fox for airing lies about the company in relation to former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods regarding the 2020 election.
The ex-host added that the owner of Fox, Ruper Murdoch, 92, “couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started”.
“I mean, I know it was,” he said.
Mr Carlson claims that he wasn’t fired, just that his show was taken off the air.
All Seasons Press, the publisher of Mr Moore’s book titled Tucker, has said that it’s based on “hundreds of hours interviews with Carlson, his family, colleagues, acquaintances and enemies”.
Mr Carlson was the top broadcaster in primetime before being removed from the lineup, garnering millions of viewers attracted by his far-right diatribes.
Following his departure, he has since started broadcasting on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, prompting a dispute with Fox, where he remains contracted.
Dominion has rejected that Mr Carlson was ousted as part of its settlement with Fox News.
Mr Moore has included the denial from Dominion in the book, stating that a lawyer for the company “wanted to make clear personally that Dominion made no requests or demands whatsoever regarding Mr Carlson’s employment with Fox or his appearance, or non-appearance, on Fox News,” according to The Guardian.
Similarly, Fox has “categorically” rejected the notion that Mr Carlson’s ouster was connected to the defamation suit.
Mr Carlson claimed in conversations with Mr Moore that he didn’t make any claims about Dominion that would be cause for libel.
On 24 April, Mr Carlson thought he was set to receive a call from Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to offer congratulations on the sixth anniversary of his programme moving to the 8pm timeslot.
“I was first confused, and then shocked,” he states in the book. “It was just, ‘We’re taking you off the air.’ No explanation why, and they’ve let me guess ever since. That’s literally all I know. I asked if I violated my contract. They said, no, I’m not fired, I’m still under contract.”
He goes on to suggest that political pressure coming out of DC could have led to him being “cancelled”. He added that Mr Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the co-chair of News Corp, “definitely didn’t like my views” on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But he also said that Lachlan Murdoch told him it was okay that they didn’t see eye to eye. Mr Carlson is seen by many observers as being pro-Russian.
On the very same page in the book, Mr Carlson calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “monster” but said that “the Murdochs were great about Ukraine”.
