The cable information world was flipped on its head Monday as each Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon have been ousted from their respective roles at Fox News and CNN in a bombshell media shakeup.
The departure of the polarizing Carlson from Fox News got here a number of days after Fox’s large $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems — and within the wake of Carlson’s non-public texts coming to gentle due to that defamation go well with over the community’s false election fraud claims. Also, Carlson had been named in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a Fox News producer who was fired.
CNN soured on Lemon following his feedback a few months in the past about presidential candidate Nikki Haley, stating on air that girls of their 50s are not of their prime.
“Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon are two very different firings,” Tobe Berkovitz, affiliate professor of Advertising emeritus at Boston University, informed the Herald on Monday.
“Carlson went because he besmirched Rupert Murdoch and the Fox News channel brand, and that’s just something that Murdoch won’t stand for, even if Carlson is his prime star,” Berkovitz mentioned, later including about Lemon, “He’s been the piñata for CNN for a long time, while Fox pulled the plug on Carlson when he was on top.”
Fox News in a press release didn’t clarify why Carlson was leaving.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” Fox News mentioned in a press release. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
His final program was on Friday, April 21. Fox News Tonight may have rotating Fox News personalities till a brand new host is known as.
Because of the Dominion lawsuit, Carlson’s texts got here to gentle. He wrote about his “hate” for former President Donald Trump, and his considerations that the community was dropping viewers amongst Trump’s followers.
“Carlson’s numbers were still super strong,” Berkovitz mentioned. “He thrives on controversy, and he thrives on battling what he considers ‘the woke insider beltway bad people.’ That by no means bothered Fox. That was high-quality.
“But when you trash your own brand and your own brand is run by Murdoch, bye bye,” he added.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Carlson’s departure was additionally tied to the discrimination lawsuit filed by the fired Fox News producer, Abby Grossberg. She claimed that Fox attorneys had pressured her to offer deceptive testimony within the Dominion lawsuit.
Meanwhile on Monday, CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht introduced that CNN and Lemon had “parted ways.”
Lemon then took to Twitter, saying he had been terminated.
“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon posted. “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.”
Lemon had been moved to “CNN This Morning,” however the present’s scores have been struggling within the aggressive time slot.
“They wanted to try to keep him and moved him into another slot, but he just doesn’t play ball well,” Berkovitz mentioned. “He’s just not a big enough draw to put up with the trouble.”
“Don Lemon has been past his prime for a long time,” he added.
The information about Carlson and Lemon got here a day after Jeff Shell, the chief government of NBCUniversal, left the corporate after an investigation into inappropriate conduct. Shell in a press release known as it “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.”
Herald wire providers have been used on this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”