Fox News host Tucker Carlson has debunked rumors he’s leaving the network by assuring viewers that he's actually working to expand hi...
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has debunked rumors he’s leaving the network by assuring viewers that he's actually working to expand his show.
‘Over the weekend, we got a lot of calls asking if we’re leaving Fox News,’ the primetime anchor said on Monday night. ‘This show isn’t going anywhere. It’s getting bigger. The people who run Fox News want more of it, not less, and we’re grateful for that.'
Carlson added that he’s currently working on a ‘project’ to expand his show’s ‘reporting and analysis’ across other parts of the company.
‘We'll have specifics soon. But as always, thank you for your trust in us. We will do our best to be worthy of it,' Carlson continued.
Carlson’s comments appeared to come in reference to a fake post circulating on Parler, a new conservative social media platform, that alleged he was leaving Fox for emerging competitor Newsmax.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson took time during a Monday broadcast to debunk rumours he’s leaving the network, assuring viewers that his show will actually be expanding
The host's comments came after rumors began circling on social media that he was departing Fox for emerging competitor, Newsmax
The doctored post, which circulated widely among conservatives online, was a screenshot of what appeared to be a post authored by user @TuckerCralson, which read: ‘The American people spoke their truth. Fox News is over. I will be starting at Newsmax next month.’
The post was shared to Facebook and flagged as part of the platform's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
A fact check published earlier on Monday by PolitiFact also rated the claim as ‘false’.
Carlson has one of the highest-rated cable news programs in the country. The controversial host is famed for his scathing attacks on the national media and prominent Democrats.
Following President Trump’s failed re-election bid, swaths of his disgruntled supporters have directed their anger towards Fox News, spurred largely by the network’s decision to cast early projections that Biden had won Arizona, and later the presidential race.
During the Million MAGA March in Washington DC Sunday, held in support of Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud, supporters of the president even chanted ‘Fox News sucks’ as they proceeded towards the Capitol.
Following President Trump’s failed re-election bid, swaths of his disgruntled supporters have directed their anger towards Fox News, spurred largely by the network’s decision to offer early projections that Biden had won Arizona, and later the presidential race
The president himself has also increased his advocacy of conservative networks like One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax, commending their more favourable coverage and urging his supporters to tune into either one of those channels instead.
Trump has also begun routinely attacking Fox on Twitter.
In a tweet Thursday, Trump claimed, without offering proof, that Fox News’ ratings had plummeted since the election.
@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed,’ he wrote. ‘Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!’
Contrary to the president’s claims, however, a quarterly Fox News report showed the network was first among daytime news viewership for the third quarter on 2020, garnering an average audience of 1.8 million viewers. Competitors MSNB and CNN, meanwhile, averaged 1.2 million and 971,000 viewers respectively.
Still, large swathes of Trump-loyalists have seemingly been defecting from Fox to the likes of Newsmax as urged by the president.
Since Election Day, Newsmax’s ratings have surged, with its primetime audience leaping some 156 percent. Last Thursday, the Florida-based network also registered one million viewers from between 7pm to 8pm.
The channel, which says it has yet to call the election, despite the majority of other mainstream media outlets identifying Biden as the winner.
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said his network was ‘waiting for the states' certification and the electoral college’ before calling the election.
‘We will be supportive of whoever the next president is,’ he added.
Reports have surfaced over the last few days that Trump is allegedly weighing up the idea of purchasing or starting his own television news network after his presidential term ends.
Trump has not yet addressed the speculation, but the Wall Street Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners, an investment firm connected to the Republican National Committee, was said to be weighing up a move of acquiring and investing in Newsmax.
The intention behind the move would be to set up Newsmax as a direct competitor to Fox News.
However, on Sunday, the news agency’s CEO Christopher Ruddy said he’s not looking to ‘actively’ sell and said the conservative TV channel would ‘never become Trump TV’.
Ruddy did say, though, that Newsmax would ‘be open’ to the idea of giving Trump his own weekly show on the channel after he leaves office on January 20.
‘He’s going to be a political and media force after he leaves the White House,’ Ruddy added.
Radio show host Howard Stern, meanwhile, scoffed at the idea of Trump owning his own news network during a Monday broadcast.
‘[If] he thinks running the country is hard, wait till he has to run a news network,’ Stern said during his Monday show on SiriusXM. ‘That’ll fail inside a year like all the other businesses. This is just insanity what’s going on.’
Stern, who was friends with Trump before he entered politics, also urged the president to ‘for once do something good’ and stop stirring his ‘loony hillbilly’ supporters into a frenzy with unfounded claims of election fraud.
‘For the good of the country, calm your f***ing loony hillbilly friends and tell them you lost the election and you’re going to help the transition,’ Stern added. ‘These loonies who follow you are all worked up; they think something was taken from you.’
The nation’s top-paid radio host, who was friends with Trump before he entered politics, also urged the president to ‘for once do something good’ and stop working his ‘loony hillbilly’ supporters into a frenzy with unfounded claims of election fraud (Stern and Trump pictured together on February 9, 2000)
Trump has so-far refused to concede the 2020 presidential election to Biden, alleging unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud are responsible for his loss.
Tucker Carlson has echoed these claims in recent days, having also questioned the integrity of the American electoral process in the nine days since Biden’s victory was projected.
In the build up to Election Day, he was also one of the most prominent critics of Biden, airing a number of segments regarding corruption allegations involving his the former Vice President’s son, Hunter Biden.
Earlier this year, Politico reported that GOP operatives were hopeful Carlson would parlay his TV perch into a run for president in 2024.
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