The shocking text message that lead to Fox News firing Tucker Carlson has been revealed.
Much to the shock of fans and regular viewers, it was announced on 24 April by Fox that Carlson would be leaving the network with immediate effect.
"Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," an official statement by Fox News said. "We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor
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"Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named."
The reason for his departure has since been revealed to be in relation to the discovery of a 'highly offensive' text message sent by Carlson, which was a huge red flag for the highest levels of the Fox network the night before its billion-dollar defamation trial.
The text was sent to one of his producers in the hours after violent supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building on 6th January, 2021, in protest to President Joe Biden's election win.
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And now, Carlon's text been made available to the public.
The text message read: "A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s**t out of him. It was three against one, at least.
"Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it."
He continued: "Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be.
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"The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him."
Carlson concluded: "I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?"
The text is part of court filings and its contents were previously redacted before being revealed in anonymous interviews by several people close to the defamation lawsuit.
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While he didn't specifically mention race, Carlson supported views on white nationalism on his show - but the text message revealed an even darker side to his views on racial superiority.
Fox Corporation's value has plunged $962m and Fox News Tonight lost over 700,000 viewers since the host's departure.
Carlson took to social media in response to post a video where he spoke about the concept of a healthy debate, saying he's annoyed at how 'stupid' some of the debates he's seen on television are.
The 53-year-old says it's only now that he's been able to take a little break from being in front of the camera that he's taken stock of how these discussions are run.
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"They're completely irrelevant," he said into the camera. "They mean nothing. In five years we won't even remember that we had them."
He complained that the 'undeniably big topics' like 'war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, and natural resource' get 'virtually no discussion time at all'.
"When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about about any of those issues?" he asked.
He alleged: "Debates like that are not permitted on American media."
The defamation case was settled last week for a staggering $787.5 million after lawyers allegedly convinced the Delaware judge to remove the explicit text message from any public filings.
UNILAD has contacted Fox News for comment.
Topics: News, Politics, US News, Tucker Carlson
Amelia Jones