Fox News Fires Tucker Carlson As If Nothing Is Even Sacred Anymore

Goodbye 1 — Word Bye and a smiley face on the napkin (with pen)

Published: April 26, 2023 | Last Updated: July 10, 2023

It’s almost 4 in the morning and I can’t sleep. A fun part of getting older. And so I’m up reading about white nationalist Tucker Carlson being fired from Fox News.

It takes a lot to shock me. But Carlson’s firing is pretty shocking. Especially since he would have been fired a long time ago if he had been working for an even marginally legitimate news network.

After all, he’s openly racist, misogynist, fascist, and really hates LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people.

Last year Media Matters crowned Carlson Misinformer of the Year, and for very good reason.

“Carlson has demonized and thus endangered the LGBTQ community, elevated pro-Kremlin propaganda as Russia invaded Ukraine, spread conspiracy theories about January 6 as committee hearings took place, and undermined election results ahead of the 2022 midterms,” Media Matters explains. “Carlson fomented and perpetuated the right-wing anti-LGBTQ panic, especially by spreading dehumanizing rhetoric against trans individuals and youths. Carlson framed LGBTQ individuals as inherent sexual predators of minors.”

Carlson made his obsessive hatred of transgender people very clear on his Fox show.

After the shooting at a Nashville Christian school in March, where six people — three adults and three children — were killed, Carlson fixated on the shooter’s gender identity after reports came out that the shooter may have been transgender. He claimed that transgender people were targeting Christians.

“Transgenderists hate Christians above all, because Christians refuse to join every other liar in our society and proclaim that transgenderists are gods with the power to change nature itself,” Carlson said on his show.

Except transgender people aren’t asking anyone to worship them. They are asking to be treated like human beings whose lives matter, something Carlson clearly thinks is asking too much.

“For that refusal,” he continued, “that unwillingness to bow down and worship a false idol, in this case of transgenderism, they were murdered. We have never seen this battle so starkly set as it is now.”

This prompted Faithful America to respond to Carlson’s rant: “As grassroots Christians, we reject these evil, malicious lies, and we proclaim Christ-like love and affirmation for the trans community. Trans people and pro-trans theologies aren't just compatible with Christianity, but are at the very heart of our loving and inclusive faith.”

There is no evidence of a widespread transgender plan to violently target Christians. On the other hand, right-wing Christians do show up with guns at drag queen events, but I’m sure Carlson would deem them “peaceful protesters” just like he did the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

After all, according to Media Matters, Carlson did tell his viewers on October 27, 2022 that drag queens were “adult” men “with a fetish for kids” and “people should definitely arm themselves” against drag queens. Carlson also said that children at drag shows is a “huge moral crime that nobody should accept” and “obviously a kind of child molestation.”

Carlson’s guest list was a rotating who’s who of people who have either been deemed Creep of the Week by yours truly, or who are always possibilities: Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Stephen Miller, Matt Gaetz, J.D. Vance, Ron DeSantis, Matt Walsh, and so many more.

They weren’t always asked to be on the show to talk about how much they hate LGBTQ+ people. Sometimes it was to call COVID a hoax, demonize immigrants, paint Black Lives Matter as a hate group, and tanning your balls. You know, normal stuff.

Honestly, Carlson being on air — as the most popular Fox host, mind you — was not only a threat to human decency, it was also a threat to democracy itself.

His firing comes after Fox News settled for $787.5 million with Dominion Voting Systems, a company that hosts like Carlson repeatedly claimed were involved with stealing the election in 2020. There’s a reason why your grandparents still believe Trump won (to be clear: he did not). Their favorite “news network” has been telling them that for years.

And what do you know, communications from Fox hosts like Carlson that came out during the discovery phase of the trial showed that they, in fact, did not believe that Trump won. But when they said as much, Fox’s ratings went down. Lying made for booming businesses. Until it didn’t.

I mean, $787.5 million is a LOT of money. It’s the biggest media settlement in U.S. history. Go big or go home, amirite?

But hey, his firing frees Carlson up to run for president.

Oh, shit. He’s going to run for president. I may never sleep again.