Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has claimed in his new biography that he was fired as part of the settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over Donald Trump’s false election claims, despite both Fox News and Dominion repeatedly denying this was the case. In April, Fox settled Dominion’s defamation case for $787.5 million, and Carlson’s firing came shortly after the settlement was announced.
According to a quote from the biography obtained by The Guardian, Carlson said, “They agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement. They had to settle this; Rupert [Murdoch, the owner of Fox News] couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started. I mean, I know it was.”
Fox News has firmly denied that Carlson’s firing was a condition of the settlement, as has Dominion Voting Systems. The voting systems company released a statement stating that they made no demands about Tucker Carlson’s employment, calling the claims categorically false and an attempt to damage Dominion further.
Tucker Carlson’s biographer, Chadwick Moore, a contributing editor at The Spectator and a repeat guest on Fox News, has supported Carlson’s claims, stating that his sources have intimate knowledge of the situation and have assured him that the firing was indeed part of the settlement, despite Dominion’s denials.
“They agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement,” Carlson tells his biographer, Chadwick Moore. “They had to settle this; Rupert [Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox News owner] couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started.
“I mean, I know it was.”
As the Fox principals who negotiated the settlement well know, Dominion made no demands about Tucker Carlson’s employment orally or in writing. Any claims otherwise are categorically false and a thinly veiled effort to further damage Dominion. Fox should take every effort to stop these lies immediately.
The settlement with Dominion was a significant moment in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as the voting systems company was at the center of false claims and conspiracy theories related to election fraud. The settlement and Carlson’s subsequent firing have added to the controversy and discussions surrounding the relationship between Fox News, its hosts, and the dissemination of misinformation.
