Fox CEO Avoids Mentioning Tucker Carlson by Name – Newsweek

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch avoided mentioning former anchor Tucker Carlson by name in the first earnings call since the popular host's ousting from the network.

On Tuesday, Murdoch acknowledged the recent shake-up involving Carlson at the news network but stopped short of speaking directly about him, saying, "There's no change to our programming strategy at Fox News."

"It's obviously a successful strategy, and, as always, we are adjusting our programming and our lineup and that's what we continue to do," the CEO said, according to entertainment news outlet The Wrap. "We are pleased with the strength of the advertising demand throughout our schedule but particularly in prime time."

Murdoch's remarks came two weeks after Carlson's abrupt departure from Fox News, where he had been the network's top host, averaging 3.25 million viewers every night at 8 p.m. for Tucker Carlson Tonight. Many observers speculated that Carlson himself was caught off guard by the decision since he signed off on his final program by saying, "We'll be back on Monday."

Since Carlson's April 24 departure, the network's ratings have plummeted. Anchors Brian Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones, who have temporarily replaced Carlson in the prime time slot, have drawn roughly 1.7 million viewers a night, a little over half of Carlson's viewers.

Nonetheless, Murdoch touted Fox's first-quarter ratings on the call without mentioning that those ratings were recorded before Carlson's firing and without addressing the recent drop in numbers, journalist Brian Stelter reported.

Newsweek reached out to Fox News via email for comment.

On Tuesday, Murdoch also addressed Fox's net loss of $50 million in the first quarter of 2023, which he largely attributed to the $787.5 million the company must pay Dominion Voting Systems following the recent settlement of a defamation lawsuit that was about to go to trial.

Despite reporting an 18 percent increase in total quarterly revenues from the first quarter last year, the settlement cost Fox its third-quarter profits. Still, Murdoch defended Fox News' 2020 presidential election coverage and the settlement with the voting machine company, saying Fox "made the business decision to resolve the dispute to avoid the acrimony of this trial and a multiyear appeal process."

He went on: "We always acted as a news organization reporting on the newsworthy events of the day. Now we have been and remain confident in the merits of our position that the First Amendment protects a news organization's reporting and allegations being made by a sitting president of the United States. However, the Delaware court severely limited our defenses and trial through pretrial rulings."

Dominion had sued Fox for $1.6 billion, arguing that Fox News damaged the company's reputation by airing a conspiracy theory that claimed its equipment caused election fraud in the 2020 election. Text messages from Carlson were made public as part of the lawsuit, and the host was expected to be one of the first witnesses called to the stand.

Among these texts was one message in which Carlson expressed sympathy with the mob that attacked "an Antifa kid" during the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

"Suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him," Carlson wrote to one of his producers. "I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be."

At one point in the message, he also said, "It's not how white men fight."

That text "alarmed" the Fox board, which "grew concerned that the message could become public at trial when Mr. Carlson was on the stand, creating a sensational and damaging moment that would raise broader questions about the company," according to The New York Times.

Read more from the original source:

Fox CEO Avoids Mentioning Tucker Carlson by Name - Newsweek