MSNBC’s Jen Psaki pointed out that Fox News “did nothing” when it had “ample reasons” to give Tucker Carlson the boot prior to his surprise exit from the network last week. (Watch below.)
Psaki, a former White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, acknowledged what finally triggered Carlson’s firing is murky.
“Was it because of highly offensive and crude messages discovered by the board of directors? Maybe,” said Psaki on her show Sunday.
“Like reportedly calling a female executive the C-word? You know the one. Was it due to the workplace harassment lawsuit filed by a former producer, or was it simply that Rupert Murdoch decided Carlson was more trouble than he was worth? For now, it’s not entirely clear. But what we do know is that for years, Fox News seemed to have ample reasons, many of them, to oust Carlson and did nothing.”
The New York Times reported last week that Carlson’s private messages shocked Fox executives and board members, and sparked a “crisis” at the network. A week earlier, Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over its spread of election lies.
Psaki, in her analysis of Carlson’s history of controversial comments, sarcastically called his anti-immigrant remarks “charming,” slammed his Jan. 6 conspiracy theories as “obviously crazy,” and blistered him for touting the great replacement theory, a conspiracy embraced by the shooter in last year’s Buffalo supermarket shooting that left 10 Black people dead.
“Throughout it all, Fox backed Tucker,” said Psaki.
“Fox News may have had a problem with Tucker himself, but his ideas — the conspiracies, the lies, his explicit white nationalist views — were never the total problem for the network,” she said. “They endorsed all of that and continue to do so. This is simply who they are.”
H/T Mediaite