Controversial Fox News host Tucker Carlson has left the cable television network, less than a week after the organisation agreed to pay more than $1.2 billion NZD to a voting machine manufacturer who was suing for defamation.
Today, Fox News said in a statement: "We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
The network gave no specific reason for Carlson's departure.
Fox News and its hosts have recently come under fire for spreading disinformation about alleged fraud in the 2020 US election.
Dominion, a voting machine manufacturer, sued for defamation, and last week, as the trial was about to begin, Fox agreed to settle.
“Over two years ago a torrent of lies swept Dominion and election officials across America to an alternative universe of conspiracy theories causing grievous harm,” said one of Dominion’s lawyers after the settlement.
Carlson, along with other Fox News personalities, were expected to give evidence during the trial.
He also faced a separate lawsuit from his former head of booking, Amy Grossberg, who alleged Tucker created a hostile working environment.
“It kind of seems to me that news has become so politicised in the US, the commitment to truth-telling - which is what journalism is all about - has just been pushed back and back,” Professor Donald Matheson at the University of Canterbury told 1News after the Dominion settlement last week.
“It’s hard to inhabit the mind of someone who is deliberately lying,” he said.
“Clearly one motivation is profit. But I think the other one – and I think this might be what was happening at Fox – there was this huge political project going on that swept a whole lot of people in it."
He said Fox News, which has traditionally dominated the conservative media landscape, had more recently been facing increasing competition from new, online media platforms
“Fox News in particular, there has been a lot of talk in the US that it's been pulled further and further to the right because it’s competing with online news sources that take very partisan and sometimes quite extreme positions on politics. So Fox, in order to compete with them, has to play that game as well.
He said those alternative media outlets were being created all over the world, including in New Zealand.
“I think in the US there is a lot of soul searching going on because you've got this polarisation in the country and news media is not bringing people together but are reinforcing that polarisation at the time there is less money in the sector... so it’s a difficult time in US journalism.”
In an apparent coincidence, Don Lemon, host of the left-leaning CNN news network announced today he had been terminated.
“At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network,” he said in a tweet.
“It is clear there are some larger issues at play.”
CNN confirmed in a tweet the network and Lemon had “parted ways”.
“Dom will forever be a part of CNN’s family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years.”
It later tweeted Lemon was “offered an opportunity to meet with management, but instead released a statement on Twitter”.
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