Tucker Carlson was caught on video making inappropriate comments about his “postmenopausal fans” before he was fired by Fox News, according to a report.
Rupert Murdoch’s news network parted company with the right-wing TV host on Monday, days after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5m to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit over election lies amplified by the channel’s personalities.
Prior to the settlement, Mr Carlson was caught off camera talking about how his older female “fans” would like how he looked on his prime-time show, reported The New York Times.
In another video, the Times reported, the host was heard talking about how he found a woman “yummy.”
Both the Times and the Wall Street Journal also reported on a string of other offensive text messages allegedly sent by Mr Carlson a month after he was sued over allegations of sexism by a former producer.
Fox executives reportedly found out about the messages shortly before the Dominion case was set to go before a jury.
The Journal says that in one text message, which was redacted for the trial, Mr Carlson called a top Fox News executive the c-word. And in a text that was not redacted, Mr Carlson allegedly called Donald Trump’s former lawyer and election denier Sidney Powell a “b***h.”
Fox News declined to comment on Carlson when contacted by The Independent.
Mr Carlson’s departure from Fox News came after his former producer, Abby Grossberg, sued him and Fox News executives in March for creating “a work environment that subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes.”
“Ms Grossberg was isolated, overworked, undervalued, denied opportunities for promotion, and generally treated significantly worse than her male counterparts, even when those men were less qualified than her,” her lawsuit states.
Fox News has denied the claims and says that Ms Grossberg only raised her concerns after she received a “critical performance review.”
Mr Carlson broke his silence over his exit from Fox News in a defiant and conspiracy-laced video he posted to Twitter on Wednesday evening at 8pm, his former primetime slot on the channel.
Mr Carlson said in the video that after being “outside the noise for a few days” he realised how “unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” calling them “completely irrelevant” and insisting that they “mean nothing.”
