Here's The Latest 'Succession'-Style Gossip About Tucker's Big Nasty Fight With Fox News

Bless his heart, sounds like he thought he was going to win.

It's taking weeks, but we are finally slowly starting to hear stories that at least sound to us like they're related to the real reason Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News. They're along the lines of Tucker being under the false impression that he was too big to fire, that he was bigger than Fox News. These are things that would actually piss off the man upstairs. (We mean Rupert Murdoch, not Jesus.)

Looking at this through a more "Succession"-type lens just makes more sense — certainly more sense than the idea that Fox News execs were alarmed to read a text message that suggested Tucker might be li'l bit white supremacist.

 Rolling Stone came out with a story on Sunday that focuses on these exact subjects, and pinpoints what ultimately happened to the "death match" Tucker got himself into when he started actively trying to get Irena Briganti, Fox's famously hardass comms chief, fired. Tucker hates her. Her name has been all over these stories, in a number of ways.

Now RS says that starting in spring of 2020, Tucker started trying actively to get her fired. It did not work and now he is the one who is fired.

The sources say Carlson made his case to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, Fox’s chief legal officer Viet Dinh, Murdoch family heir and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, and even other Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity.

In pleading his case, Carlson argued Briganti spent too much time badgering on-air talent and the channel’s personnel; that she was generally incompetent and mean-spirited; and that she regularly engaged in dirty tricks against him and other hosts and contributors, when her job was ostensibly to protect them. One current Fox source with knowledge of the matter described the Carlson-Briganti feud as an intra-network “death match.”

“I do know that he was telling [Fox executives] that [Briganti] should be fucking fired,” a former Fox News commentator tells Rolling Stone. “She’s terrible. He was very bold there.”

But not bold enough. Or powerful enough. Or he just wasn't a strong or important enough guy. Maybe he didn't spend enough time in the nut-tanner, tanning his nuts.

But despite Carlson’s high ratings, influence in Republican political circles, and hyper-devoted fan base, he lacked the juice to oust Briganti. Her ties to other top executives were too tight for Carlson to overcome. In some cases, executives laughed off Carlson’s attempt to get Briganti fired, assuring him and others that Briganti was not going anywhere anytime soon.

Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle, they said about Tucker, behind his back. Yes, we are finding this plotline much more believable.

RS says when Briganti found out about what Tucker was doing, she reacted like this:

Word of Carlson’s attempt to get her fired got back to Briganti, exacerbating an already terrible relationship. Briganti “hates all the talent,” the former Fox News commentator says. “She was so disgusted by the level of fucked up idiots who work there, in her opinion, and had to clean up their messes and their overblown egos.”

This continues to make sense.

“He really thought he was going to make a change, and I kind of shook my head,” says a different former Fox News talent. “It was such a terrible idea. It was such a clear suicide mission … But then again at the time I guess he thought he was big enough to do anything.”

Bless his heart. Tucker fought a woman and the woman won, sounds like. That can't be good for his masculinity issues. 

RS notes that this still isn't exactly the smoking gun of why Tucker was fired, but we feel that it gives us a much clearer backdrop. Read the whole very fun article! And also read the new one in the Daily Beast with more unredacted messages between Tucker and Bret Baier, which features Tucker calling people a "cunt" a bunch more. That's reportedly been part of this whole saga, as well, Tucker using that word against various people, probably including Briganti, according to various sources in various publications, including the Rolling Stone we are reading today. "One thousand percent" that was partially about Briganti, says one of their sources.

In related news, Axios came out yesterday with its own scooplet that Tucker is "ready to torch Fox News."

"The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous," says his lawyer. But unfortunately, to speak to his audience the way he wants — he wants to start his own media empire of some kind — he needs to get out of his contract with Fox, which doesn't expire until January of 2025. Axios says Fox would rather pay Tucker a bunch of millions to stay off the air.

Of course, other idiot wingnut outfits are courting Tucker, and Axios drops this little nugget:

Axios has learned that Carlson and Elon Musk had a conversation about working together, but didn't discuss specifics.

Christ, that's terrifying.

Here are some tough guy words Axios printed about how ready Tucker is to torch Fox News, in bullet points, because Axios likes them and so do we:

• The ousted host "knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and is ready to start drawing a map," said a Carlson source who wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

• Bare-knuckle brawlers from Trumpworld are standing by.

• "They're coming to him and saying: 'Do you want me to hit Fox?' '' a close Carlson friend said. "He's been saying: 'No. I want to get this done quiet and clean.' "

• "Now, we're going from peacetime to Defcon 1," the friend added. "His team is preparing for war. He wants his freedom.

• In a sign of what could be coming, Megyn Kelly hit her former employer for its post-Carlson ratings by tweeting a reference to conservative attacks on Bud Light: "My audience is calling them #Foxweiser."

That is the stupidest fucking thing we have ever heard, but Megyn Kelly's audience is pretty fucking stupid.

Well, if Tucker and Fox can't get along, we guess they're just going to have to fight a whole bunch.

This story isn't going away anytime soon.

[ Rolling Stone / Axios ]

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here. 

And once that doesn't exist, I'm also giving things a go at the Mastodon (@evanhurst@newsie.social) and at Post! 

Have you heard that Wonkette DOES NOT EXIST without your donations? Please hear it now, and if you have ever enjoyed a Wonkette article, throw us some bucks, or better yet, SUBSCRIBE!

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .