Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks at a National Review Institute occasion on March 29, 2019, in Washington, D.C. The community introduced Monday that it could “part ways” with Carlson.

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks at a National Review Institute occasion on March 29, 2019, in Washington, D.C. The community introduced Monday that it could “part ways” with Carlson.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In an austere, four-sentence assertion, Fox News introduced Monday that prime-time star Tucker Carlson is leaving the community, efficient instantly.

“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the community mentioned in an announcement launched by a spokesperson. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

Fox mentioned Carlson’s final day internet hosting his present was Friday, April 21. Yet on Monday morning after Fox launched its assertion, the community was nonetheless selling an interview between Carlson and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that was to have aired later that night time.

Carlson had signed off of Friday’s present by wishing viewers the “best weekend” and telling them he’d be again on Monday. He didn’t reply to a request for remark from NPR.

The ouster of Fox’s prime opinion host comes lower than per week after Fox settled an epic defamation lawsuit by an election know-how firm for greater than $787 million. Dominion Voting Systems sued over segments selling bogus claims that election fraud cheated then-President Donald Trump of victory in 2020.

Carlson featured in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit. Yet he’s additionally the main target of a lawsuit from his former senior reserving producer, Abby Grossberg, who filed two separate fits.

Producer suing Carlson for intercourse discrimination celebrates his departure

In a lawsuit filed within the Southern District of New York, Grossberg accused Carlson and Fox of sexism and harassment, alleging that his present’s office was replete with examples of misogyny. Her lawsuit claims, amongst different issues, that mocked-up photographic photographs depicted then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a bathing suit revealing her cleavage” and that staffers had been polled — on two separate events — on which of two feminine candidates for Michigan governor they’d reasonably have intercourse with.

“Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News is, in part, an admission of the systemic lying, bullying, and conspiracy-mongering claimed by our client,” mentioned Tanvir Rahman, one in all Grossberg’s legal professionals, in an announcement Monday afternoon. “Mr. Carlson and his subordinates remain individual defendants in the S.D.N.Y. case and we look forward to taking their depositions under oath in the very near term.”

Grossberg’s different lawsuit, filed in Delaware, focuses on the actions of Fox’s authorized staff. She says the attorneys pressured her to lie in her sworn statements for the defamation case about what she witnessed on the community.

Fox vigorously denied the accusations towards its legal professionals. It fired Grossberg after she filed her fits, alleging that she disclosed privileged data amid the defamation litigation that she was not legally entitled to make public.

“This is a step towards accountability for the election lies and baseless conspiracy theories spread by Fox News, something I witnessed firsthand,” mentioned Grossberg within the assertion about Carlson’s ouster. “This is some justice for the American people and for Fox News viewers who’ve been manipulated and lied to for years, all in an attempt to boost the channel’s ratings and revenue.”

Documents made public earlier than the settlement with Dominion Voting Systems reveal a transparent divide between what Carlson mentioned on air and behind the scenes. On his present, he raised skeptical questions over the dearth of proof for assertions made by a key Trump ally, Sidney Powell. In January 2021, nevertheless, he hosted a number one advertiser, My Pillow founder Mike Lindell, who repeated the false claims as soon as extra. In his non-public communications to a colleague, Carlson referred to as Powell an exceptionally vulgar and denigrating time period for a lady.

Fox says a rotating solid of personalities will fill in throughout the prime-time slot till the community names a everlasting alternative.

A star who survived controversy after controversy

Carlson was by far the community’s most distinguished persona, stepping in easily to interchange former star host Bill O’Reilly after a sequence of sexual harassment allegations compelled his departure. (O’Reilly has denied these accusations.)

Carlson has additionally established a significant footprint at Fox Nation, its streaming web site that caters to an much more pronounced right-wing sensibility.

Despite his surprising departure, Carlson had endured extra controversies than most cable information stars may hope to outlive professionally. In July 2020, his top writer was forced out after it was found he had posted racist, sexist and homophobic commentaries. Last month, the Daily Dot found that one in all Carlson’s staffers had the behavior of “liking” posts from VDare, a web site for white nationalists.

His present has been condemned by civil rights leaders for broadcasting racist, antisemitic and anti-immigrant ideology.

His work on his present — accentuated by specials on the streaming service — additionally sparked a firestorm by looking for to exonerate individuals who participated within the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol as civic-minded individuals who had been being politically persecuted.

That contributed to the decision by several prominent Fox figures to depart — together with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace and conservative commentators Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg.

Mary Yang contributed to this story.