Was Tucker Fired Because He Couldn't Stop Saying C-Word? (By Which We Mean 'Christ')

Everybody in this story, including Tucker, is a goddamned fucking weirdo.

There are conspiracy theories about why Tucker Carlson got fired. Is it because he finally spake the truths about COVID vaccines and Big Pharma forced Big Rupert to eliminate him? Yes sure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whatever the brain worms are telling you today.

Is it because RAY EPPS? Did Tucker expose the truth of how RAY EPPS did January 6 and then "60 Minutes" said "NO RAY EPPS!" and then RAY EPPS forced Big Rupert to eliminate him? Yes that too, also. RAY EPPS!

Then there's the real journalism. There have been suggestions swirling that Tucker might have finally actually managed to piss Rupert Murdoch off, that it could have something to do with his coverage of January 6, that it could have something to do with revelations in the lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg, or the Dominion settlement, that it could just be ALL OF THE ABOVE, KATIE.

A couple fun stories hit late yesterday, and we like them both. The one from Gabe Sherman in Vanity Fair is so weird, but also confirms our thesis that all of these people are goddamned freaks.

In Sherman's telling, Rupert Murdoch really didn't like the way Tucker was fawning all over God in a speech last week at the Heritage Foundation, telling people they had to pray for America, because we are in a fight between "good" and "evil." (Surprise, Tucker reportedly put transgender issues in the "evil" category, because he is a vile, irredeemable bigot. )

PEEEEEE YEW! Rupert thinks prayers are stinky! Nobody on Fox News is allowed to talk about prayers!

“That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” the source said.

OK, we are skeptical, but if we are really firing Fox News people for being creepy about their faith, let's fire Harris Faulkner next. 

Just kidding. (Not kidding.)

Sherman goes on to report that Murdoch's distaste for the way Tucker hits on God all the time could be related to his recent broken two-week engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, who is apparently all up God's pantleg just like Tucker is.

In my May cover story , I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was “a messenger from God.” Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch’s Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. “Rupert just sat there and stared,” the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex’s favorite show.

Hahaha that is so awesome and petty. Rupert sees his girlfriend and Tucker blabbin' about "Is that the Second Coming in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" and he loses his shit, breaks off the engagement, and cancels her favorite show.

Amazing. Yes.

The last graf of Sherman's piece pokes at the notion that what's going on in Rupert's world could be very similar to the premise of the show "Succession," where everybody thinks the bossman is senile but they're scared to say it.

So that's one story.

The   Wall Street Journal   says it's because Tucker can't stop calling everybody a "cunt" all the time.

Specifically it says that in a "redacted missive," he called a "senior executive" the "c-word." That would be from the Dominion filings, and some are guessing he was referring to Irena Breganti, head of comms at Fox News. Tucker was very mad at her in those filings, in the parts that weren't redacted, and bellyached with Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity that she hated the primetimers. Matthew Gertz from Media Matters speculates that a bunch of these leaks we're seeing right now about what happened behind the scenes might also be coming from Breganti:

“It’s probably worth interpreting most leaks out of Fox News this week as Irena Briganti, on behalf of the Murdochs, letting Tucker Carlson know how bad things will get for him if he doesn’t go quietly.”

— Matthew Gertz (@Matthew Gertz) 1682508956 

So there's that.

The story in the Wall Street Journal — which we should note is owned by Rupert Murdoch — begins with Tucker being mad that him calling somebody a "cunt" was redacted from filings in the Dominion lawsuit:

Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Carlson, Fox News’s most-watched prime-time host, wasn’t impressed. He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message, the people said. Mr. Carlson said comments he made about former President Donald Trump—“I hate him passionately”—that were in the court documents were said during a momentary spasm of anger, while his dislike of this executive was deep and enduring.

Well OK then. His Trump hatred is just a spasm. His hatred of "executive" is for real. Please tell the court I called her a "cunt." 

The story suggests there is a LOT that was redacted in those filings, and that it would be very humiliating for everyone involved if all that was to become public. There is suggestion that Tucker had come to think he was bigger than Fox News, that he was "untouchable," which is a big no-no in Rupert's world. The fact that he was the kiss of death for actual good advertisers could have played a part, if the show was as big of a money loser as it appears. 

It also says there were concerns that his commentary was becoming "more of an attack on marginalized groups" these days. Keen of them to pick up on that.

Mr. Carlson sometimes trafficked in what critics—including some higher-ups within Fox—felt was thinly veiled racism on his show, such as when he recently suggested a Tennessee lawmaker got into a good college only because of his skin color, some of the people said.

WHOA, Fox bigwigs, WHOA. Thinly veiled racism ? On Tucker's show? 

Jesus fuck, literally the most prominent white supremacist on the planet and Fox sources are jacking off in the Wall Street Journal about "thinly veiled racism," Jesus fuck.

Aligning with the theory that all these leaks are coming from the C-suites of Fox News as a warning to Tucker about what might happen if he doesn't keep his little pursed fish stick prince lips shut, Rolling Stone is reporting that Fox News has a whole oppo file on him that it's totally prepared to release, according to eight sources. They say his firing is happening on the "worst" and "messiest possible terms," and that the network is just ready for him to open his yap.

The network of course officially denies it, but:

The file includes internal complaints regarding workplace conduct, disparaging comments about management and colleagues, and allegations that the now-former prime-time host created a toxic work environment, three of the sources say. [...]

An ex-Fox News anchor laments, “Irena tries to keep a file on everybody.… Any talent like Tucker would have a lot of things; other people complaining. They encourage it, and then just keep it on file. It’s just a classic dirty trick.”

“[Briganti] keeps files on everybody to screw with them,” a departed Fox News host adds. “It’s classic Fox.”

So that's fun, and obviously we want to read the entire oppo file, if such a thing exists.

But let us just say right here and right now that if there is a Green M&M Pee Tape in there, nobody wants to see that, OK?

We repeat: Nobody wants to know if there is any kompromat out there involving Tucker that involves a Green M&M Pee Tape.

That would just be icky.

[ Vanity Fair / WSJ / Rolling Stone ]

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