'I’m stuck with Fox': Unredacted Tucker Carlson texts highlight post-election turmoil at Fox News

09 May 2023

2023 has been a turbulent year for Fox News. Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit ended with Fox News agreeing to a $787.5 million settlement, and the right-wing cable news outlet fired its top-rated host Tucker Carlson — reportedly because of tensions between Carlson and owner Rupert Murdoch.

Moreover, Fox News is still facing a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion competitor Smartmatic, which alleges that Fox News defamed the company by promoting the false claim that Smartmatic's equipment was used to help President Joe Biden steal the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump — a claim that has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked.

Although the Dominion settlement is costing Fox News a fortune, Fox's attorneys obviously reasoned that it would be easier than going through a trial — as Dominion's attorneys presented, as evidence, e-mails and text messages showing that Fox News stars like Carlson and Sean Hannity didn't really believe the election was stolen.

In an article published by the Daily Beast on May 8, reporters Corbin Bolies and Justin Baragona describe some previously unreported text messages exchanged between Carlson and his colleagues, including Fox News host Jesse Watters, following the 2020 election. And there are two recurring themes: (1) Carlson was already thinking about life after Fox News, and (2) Carlson didn't want reporters in Fox News' hard news division publicly acknowledging that the election wasn't really stolen.

Watters, according to Bolies and Baragona, "expressed some very Tucker-like thoughts to Carlson about firing some news vets and replacing them with MAGA-friendly voices." The Fox host, on November 13, 2020, told Carlson that Chris Wallace (who is now with CNN) and Neil Cavuto "have got to go" and recommended hiring "some Trump people."

"Watters' demand to fire veteran anchors Chris Wallace and Neil Cavuto mirror Carlson's similar, previously reported grousing to fellow prime-time stars Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity," Bolies and Baragona explain. "Carlson also let Watters know his anger towards correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, whom Carlson and Hannity also wanted fired for fact-checking a Trump tweet."

Fact-checking, of course, is what reporters are supposed to do. But Carlson obviously feared that fact-checking Trump-related claims about the 2020 election would be bad for ratings.

Carlson, texting Watters, said of Heinrich, "This girl apparently works for us in the 'news' division, though I'd be stunned if she's ever broken a story. She was on Twitter last night calling out Hannity, and accusing Trump of planning to 'steal' the election. Can't continue."

The Daily Beast has also reported that Carlson told Baier, in a text, that he feared Fox News could be "destroyed" by calling Arizona for Biden on Election Night 2020 and added, "I've got four more years here. I'm stuck with Fox. Got to do whatever I can to keep our numbers up and our viewers happy."

Read the Daily Beast's full reportat this link(subscription required).

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