In the wake of the shocking news that Fox News and Tucker Carlson had agreed to “part ways” last Monday, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly appeared to have the inside scoop.
Kelly, who currently hosts “The Megyn Kelly Show” on SiriusXM, told viewers last week:
I want to, I think, break some news for you. Tucker Carlson hasn’t actually been fired. He’s still an employee of the Fox News Channel. What happened was, Suzanne Scott called him, she’s the CEO, on Monday, morning, and said, um, he was not going to be allowed to do any more shows, and that he had been kicked out of his company email, and now they’re going to have to negotiate an exit. Um, some reporting to me, uh, suggests that she said it’s going to be an amicable parting. Right? Isn’t it?
Tucker’s not fired. That’s my information. That he still needs to negotiate the exit. And that right now he’s not free to launch a podcast or a digital show, or negotiate with other employers at all because he’s still under contract.
In the video below, Kelly tells Victor Davis Hanson her sources say the decision to “part ways” with Tucker was reportedly a “personal decision” made by Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and “that it was not necessarily for any reason other than Rupert’s personal feelings.”
On Saturday, news site 19FortyFive reported they’d reached out to Carlson for a comment on the issue. Via text message, he replied: “I’m still employed by Fox.”
It’s been widely reported that Carlson’s current contract with Fox runs through 2024. And, according to Kelly, he earns $20 million a year.
Does this mean that Fox plans to silence Tucker’s voice for the next year and eight months – the period leading up to arguably the most consequential election in American history? Will the network keep him on the payroll for the remainder of his contract to prevent him from finding another platform? After shelling out $787.5 million to settle the Dominion lawsuit, will Fox spend another $33 million just to muzzle Carlson ahead of the 2024 election? No one knows. All we can do is read the tea leaves.