When Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News, the channel lost its biggest star. Conspiracy theories exploded about why it would do such a thing, so sloppily and suddenly. Was it a condition of its epic settlement with Dominion Voting Systems? Was he getting on too well with boss Rupert Murdoch's very religious fiancée? None of the above, writes Brian Stelter for Vanity Fair. He was fired for the same reason he got fired from MSNBC and from CNN before: because he's Tucker Carlson. He's the guy who just walks around the office calling women "cunts" until someone more important has had enough of it.
In truth, Carlson had alienated so many people, instigated so many internal and external scandals, fanned so many flames of ugliness, that his firing was inevitable. …
Carlson's internal critics, of whom there were many, viewed his treatment of the female executives as part and parcel with the misogyny displayed on his show. More than a dozen current and former Fox staffers brought this problem up to me, unprompted. "Tucker is very titillated by misogyny," a host said. Some of the staffers theorized that his mother's mistreatment—she abandoned the family when Carlson was six—engendered a negativity toward women. …
Carlson told a friend that the word fuck "is so overused it's lost all its power and meaning," so cunt was more effective: "It's super naughty, but it's to the point." His brand, weird as it was, revolved around the idea that he could call anyone the C-word, or anything else, at any time. He could say anything, do anything, and never be held accountable, so long as he commanded the attention and affection of millions. On the inside, that was partially true. Scott, for example, was personally disgusted by some of Carlson's on-air comments and off-air conduct but felt hemmed in by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch.
Something to bear in mind is that Stetler's sourcing surely includes the white-shoe law firm that Fox hired to make sure Tucker is professionally wrecked. Nonetheless, this is much better than the Floating World pundits like Michael Wolff whose speculation is forensically indistinguishable from fabulation.
