We've been hearing this, but Matt Boyle is excellent confirmation. Tucker Carlson hired him out of college to work at the Daily Caller (which Tucker used to own; I think he sold it because Fox forced him to).
Boyle would probably know people in Tucker's camp. This could even be coming from Tucker himself.
Fox News is trying to sideline former Tucker Carlson Tonight host Tucker Carlson through the 2024 election, multiple sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News.
Carlson's current contract runs through December 2024, and as of now three sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News that executives at the network are trying to keep Carlson on contract and not release him until after the 2024 election.
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Nobody would speak on the record, for a number of reasons. First off, Fox News and the broader Murdoch empire are known for their ruthlessness against anyone who speaks the truth about what is actually happening there. Network spokeswoman Irena Briganti is believed to use outlets also owned by the Murdochs like the New York Post and Wall Street Journal to plant pieces that reflect poorly on foes of News Corporation.
Secondly, both Carlson and Bongino are technically still under contract by the network. Bongino's contract runs through the end of April and Carlson's through the 2024 general election. Both are, sources say, trying to negotiate exit packages--and even after they formally have those agreements in place, there will be non-disparagement clauses that prevent them from ever speaking the truth about this.
Boyle says that Fox News is now like a real-life Succession, as Lachlan and James Murdoch are making big moves in anticipation of the retirement or death of Rupert, who is 93.
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"As of right now, the plan remains the same: pay out Carlson's contract and keep him on the sidelines through the 2024 elections," one source close to Fox News senior executives told Breitbart News. "They knew they would take a beating for this, but everyone -- and I mean everyone -- is pretty rattled. They weren't expecting the blowback to be this bad. Hate to say it, but it's clear that Rupert has lost a step or two."
The Establishment is always being surprised by how conservatives react. That's because they never read us or listen to us, ever, because they think we're loathsome and not worth the tiniest amount of effort.
And they always think they can ply us with Cheap Date Conservatism gestures.
Not anymore.
It's the same story again and again: "Republican" politicians are shocked to learn what actual Republicans actually think. They're stunned to find themselves in ill-favor among the voters.
A fake conservative network is taken completely by surprise to discover that their most popular anchor is, get this, popular.
I know that Nike doesn't care what conservatives think -- but shouldn't a "conservative" news alternative network sort of care? Shouldn't actual Republican office-holders elected by conservative voters spend at least some time reading and listening to conservatives?
But no; they don't care. They think we are beneath notice.
I promise you this, assholes:
YOU WILL BE MADE TO CARE.
The "blowback" has been severe this week, as evidenced by a steep drop in Fox News ratings in the 8:00 p.m. ET hour day over day:
Brian Stelter
@brianstelterFox News viewership at 8pm ET:
Tucker's finale: 2.65 million
Monday: 2.59 million
Tuesday: 1.70 million
Wednesday: 1.33 million
In fact, replacement host Brian Kilmeade lost to MSNBC in all ratings--and lost to CNN and MSNBC in the key demographic--on Wednesday night.
Oh, wow.
An insider confirms that the Murdochs, who Boyle says often don't know what's going on at the network and rule with "indifference," made a move to the right in 2020, but only to quell the populist revulsion among Fox viewers for the Arizona call.
If the 2016 election was one "inflection point" for Fox News, as one insider told Breitbart News, the 2020 election was another one. Fox's decision to call Arizona for now-President Joe Biden days ahead of everyone else really infuriated the "Make America Great Again," or MAGA, base and Fox News was reeling again and needed an intervention to stop the bleeding among its audience.
"Post-2020, when Fox was really hurting, there was sort of a shift to the right by Fox to cover their flank," one former Fox News staffer told Breitbart News. "It's why they brought in Bongino. They gave Jesse 7:00 p.m. They got Tucker to do the Fox Nation shows. They replaced Shannon Bream's 11:00 p.m. show with Greg Gutfeld's show. They generally became more conservative as a network."
Boyle says this reign of indifference ended with the nearly-$800 million Dominion settlement.
Why does Arnon Mishnik still hae a job?
At any rate, after that settlement, the feeble Murdoch bloodline decided to reassert their power and show that they wanted a Return to the Normalcy of Rah-Rah for Mitch F'n' McConnell and their other corporate donor palz.
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"This change at Fox makes it more fundamentally top-down driven," this person added. "Only recently did Fox try and reflect grassroots conservatism more. I think we're going to see a reversion to the Fox of the past, where it's fewer segments attacking Mitch McConnell and generally dumbed down."
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"After the Dominion settlement, there was clearly a meeting at the network--I don't know if it was a board meeting or just the Murdochs, but someone made a decision--and said these two are the biggest threats to the network and they don't listen to anyone," the source said. "Neither one of them were controllable, and they were just doing their own thing. They were developing such a profile that it became problems for them. They just decided on Wednesday to cut bait."
A source says this isn't about Trump, it's about control -- and returning Fox to its Fake Conservative roots, cheerleading for Lindsey Graham.
"It's not about religion. It's not about the MAGA stuff," that source added. "It's that the two of them did not listen to anybody. They did their own thing and their own shit, and Fox has a brand. The brand is 'You will rep our company, shut the fuck up, and do what we tell you.' That's why they love Kilmeade and these people because that's what they do."
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"I think this has less to do with Trump and DeSantis and more to do with people like Mitch McConnell and John Thune," this source said. "The change in the programming will be that if there's some sort of controversial bill moving on Capitol Hill, Tucker would often use his show to try to kill it. That sort of stuff won't be going on anymore. I just think the network and the programming will be dumber, rah rah Republicans. Milquetoast content. It's a reversion to what Fox was. The Tucker era at Fox was a deviation from the norm at Fox."
More at the link. There's a lot I didn't excerpt.