Tucker Carlson, the long-time presenter on Fox News, has issued a statement following his departure from the network, which has sparked a wave of interest and speculation.
In a video posted on social media, Carlson spoke about the importance of healthy debate and expressed his frustration at the lack of discussion on major issues such as war, civil liberties, and corporate power.
He alleged that these discussions are not permitted on American media and that both Republicans and Democrats shut down any debate on these topics.
Carlson went on to say that people are filled with fear and that those who speak the truth are becoming powerful. Although the video appeared to be thinly veiled at something or someone, it wasn’t entirely clear what he was referring to.
The fallout from Carlson’s departure has been significant, with more than 700,000 fewer people tuning into the programme and the network’s value plummeting.
On average, Carlson’s programme had been earning about 3.3 million viewers per night before his departure.
However, approximately 2,597,000 tuned in to Fox News Tonight, hosted by Brian Kilmeade, which represents a decline of more than 20 percent.
Although Fox News Tonight still earned more viewers than competing 8pm slots on MSNBC and CNN, it was still a drop of 21 percent for the usually popular programme.
Instead, Fox’s talk show The Five earned the highest cable news ratings on Monday with 3,220,000 viewers.
Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023
It remains to be seen what the fallout from Carlson’s departure will be and whether he will return to Fox News or move to a new network.
In the meantime, his statement has sparked debate and speculation about the role of healthy debate in modern media and the importance of discussing major issues in a meaningful way.
