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Tucker Carlson Gets The Last Laugh Over Fox News

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is getting the last laugh after he was abruptly ousted by Fox News. Since he was taken off the airwaves, Fox News has suffered a brutal decline in viewership.

“In the first week after Carlson’s ouster on April 24, the channel’s primetime viewership fell 29.6 percent to 1.449 million viewers, coming in third among cable networks, according to figures from Nielsen,” Yahoo News reported.

“Viewership for the network’s 8 p.m. time slot was down 47 percent overall for that week, according to an analysis from former Fox News host Megyn Kelly. The analysis averaged the viewership from the first week of his absence and compared it with the last week he was on the air. Among the key demographic of 25-54-year-olds, ratings were down a whopping 59 percent,” the outlet added.

Earlier this week, a new survey found that Carlson remains more popular with Americans than his former employer.

The poll by Rasmussen Reports found that Carlson remains popular among conservative and Republican likely voters. “Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Likely U.S. voters have a favorable impression of Carlson, including 36% who have a Very Favorable opinion of him,” the polling firm noted.

“Thirty-four percent (34%) view Carlson unfavorably, including 25% with a Very Unfavorable impression,” the firm added in a release.

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Meanwhile, Fox News now has a lower approval from likely voters, with only 52% of voters viewing the network favorably and 24% very favorably, decidedly lower than Carlson’s numbers. Among likely voters, 42% viewed Fox News unfavorably, with 28% having a very unfavorable view.

When it comes to the impact of Carlson’s firing from the network, only 19 percent of voters thought it would have a positive effect on the network. In contrast, 32 percent believed that his departure would actually lower the quality of the news platform. On the other hand, 42 percent of voters did not think that Carlson’s exit would make any significant difference to Fox.

Carlson stunned his fans — and likely put more fear into his employer — after he posted another video to Twitter this week announcing a new “show” on the platform.

Earlier this month, Carlson took to Twitter in his first public statement after being taken off the air to drop truth bombs about corruption within the cable news industry in general, as well as covert and overt acts of self-imposed censorship and disinformation.

A second video posted to the platform this week has already garnered an earth-shaking 120 million times.

That has to be shocking to Fox News executives who, according to previous reports, are looking to keep Carlson under his current contract, which does not expire until January 2025, to avoid a permanent and massive loss of viewers.

In his first video to his supporters last week, he encouraged them to “keep fighting” and added that they would hear from him soon.

Carlson said he realized after stepping “outside the noise for a few days” how “unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” arguing that they were “completely irrelevant” and “mean nothing.”

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In his second video, Carlson announced he was moving to Twitter to post a show there in the coming weeks.

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“There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world is Twitter,” Carlson said in his short monologue – in which he took a shot at Fox, saying, “If you bump up against the limits [in the news business] you will be fired for it.”

“The rule of what you can’t say defines everything,” he said, adding, “You can’t have a free society if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true… There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one… is Twitter, where we are now.”

“Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops,” he continued, noting further that other networks are “thinly disguised propaganda outlets.”

“You see it on cable news, you talk about it on Twitter,” said Carlson. “The result may feel like a debate, but actually, the gatekeepers are still in charge. We think that’s a bad system. We know exactly how it works and we’re sick of it.”

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