Megyn Kelly Spills Some Tea on the Tucker Carlson Departure

Fox News has more egg on their face... no surprise there.

As I teased on Monday on this audio hit, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson was unceremoniously let go from Fox News Corporation. That, among the news that CNN’s Don Lemon was also relieved of his “anchor” duties after 17 years with that network, made for a dizzying news day.

There is so much speculation going on, with everyone from the Pentagon (don’t they have better things to do?!) to AOC (we know she doesn’t) gleefully weighing in on the “firing.”

Frankly, I am more interested in hearing about takes on Tucker Carlson from someone who was kind of a lightning rod for controversy themselves, as well as a part of the upper echelons of talent at Fox News. So, I patched into Megyn Kelly’s podcast, where she spent most of her program discussing Carlson’s rapid departure.

Here’s what Kelly had to say:

• Tucker Carlson was not fired. He is still under contract—in fact, he was in the process of renegotiating his already $20 million dollar deal.

• He’s still an employee of Fox News, which means he’s under noncompete—he cannot look for, nor accept, another media position.

• Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News called Carlson Monday morning and said, he was not going to be allowed to do any more shows, that he was locked out of his company email, and that the plan forward was to “negotiate an exit.”

Kelly said that this caught Carlson off guard. No kidding. A professional like Carlson truly cares about his audience. So had he known this was in the works, he would have indicated to them what was going on. Apparently, Carlson had plans of doing his Monday evening show, and that things were business as usual.

That same day, Fox News also fired Carlson’s executive producer Justin Wells.

Clearing house.

Kelly also said that Carlson asked Scott what was the reason behind them pulling his show and relieving him of his platform, but she refused to give him a reason WHY.

Kelly made some good points about how much Carlson did for Fox News, particularly in the wake of the departure (under sexual assault allegations) of Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly.

Kelly said,

“Tucker smashed the ball out of the park, and he took a lot of risks, he was heterodox, he pushed against the orthodoxy on so many different things.”

“So why? Why now?

“What was it that led them to treat their Number One star with such disdain—I mean, dripping disdain to the point where he can no longer access his email, he doesn’t get to tell his own team, he doesn’t get to say goodbye. I mean, it’s absolutely disrespectful to him.”

Then Kelly makes the inevitable comparison to CNN’s Don Lemon, which essentially was no comparison at all.

“And unlike Don Lemon, he hadn’t been immersed in controversy after controversy inside the building against his own colleagues.

“What would make your own company turn against you like that?”

One of Kelly’s guest was Victor Davis Hanson, to discuss the Carlson departure. Kelly reiterated that her sources say the decision to remove Carlson came straight from the top: Rupert Murdoch himself.

Sounds about right. Despite handing the day-to-day reins of Fox News over to his children, Rupert Murdoch is still very much invested in his baby, especially when it comes to the top talent.

Kelly also spilled the tea on the goings-on with the Murdoch scions. If you watch the HBO Max show Succession, you have a good picture of the *ish that may be going on behind the scenes.

Kelly produced a lively podcast, and I was reminded why she was such a popular and well-watched host on Fox News.

Worth the watch while it’s still free, especially the last half where she takes down the other cable news hosts, particularly at CNN and MSNBC, who are prematurely dancing on Carlson’s grave:

In the meantime, Tucker Carlson appears to be enjoying having his evenings off after seven years.

The Daily Mail U.K. caught up with him:

It's been barely two days since his brutal ouster from Fox News - but Tucker Carlson looks like a man without a care in the world.

The TV firebrand shrugged off the media storm and insisted he was more interested in enjoying a romantic date with his wife Susan as he broke his silence in an exclusive chat with DailyMail.com.

'Retirement is going great so far,' chuckled Carlson, 53, as he emerged from his $5.5 million beach home in Boca Grande, Florida on Tuesday night.

'I haven’t eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years.'

Pressed on his future, the flame-throwing former host of Tucker Carlson Tonight flashed a broad smile and joked: 'Appetizers plus entree.'

So, it seems Carlson is feeling no pain; or even if he is, he’s not going to let the media see it.

Good on him.

Activist Jose Vega confronted the corporate media executive editors about their efforts to silence voices like Tucker Carlson and Julian Assange, as well as their ignoring of stories like the Nordstream II bombing. Sadly, Twitter and Substack are no longer sympatico, so I can only link the tweet, not embed it.

<insert *eyeroll* emoji>

You can find it here.

My friends and I confronted the executive editors for @nytimes, @washingtonpost, @latimes, @Reuters on their censorship of Seymour Hersh, Uhuru, Julian Assange, Tucker Carlson, Russiagate..Then the Dean of Columbia and security pushed me to the ground and tried to silence me.

Three days later and Carlson is still making news. In this 24/7 news cycle, that’s a huge accomplishment. And my prediction is that will not change. As I said in my audio hit, Carlson himself is the brand. He didn’t need Fox News, and he has enough FU money and clout to build his own media empire, if he wants.

I had opportunity to hear Carlson speak at Turning Point USA’s Amfest 2022 in Arizona, and was surprised at the focus of his topic. He spent very little time on “the media” or politics, and spent lots of time talking about God, culture, and how the rapid downhill slide of our culture can be attributed to evil taking the place of good and reason.

Apparently his last speech before he was removed from Fox News, that he gave at the Heritage Foundation over the weekend, was also of this vein. It’s been making the rounds and is linked below.

Mark my words: I see this as the birth of a greater voice and a bigger megaphone for Tucker Carlson. Frankly, Fox News was holding him back—no more.

Now, we get to see Tucker Carlson Unleashed. Maybe that should be the name of his next media platform—if he does use it, I hope he gives me the credit.