The announcement came just one week after Fox News settled a massive defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over the network's dissemination of election lies.
According to Fox News, Carlson's last show aired on Friday, April 21. Carlson was one of the key figures in Dominion Voting Systems' mammoth defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Only one of the 20 allegedly defamatory Fox broadcasts mentioned in the case came from Carlson's top-rated show. Still, he was set to be one of Dominion's first witnesses to testify at trial. His private text messages, which became public as part of the suit, also caused a stir nationwide.
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Dominion obtained Carlson's group chat with fellow Fox primetime stars Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and a trove of other messages from around the 2020 presidential election.
These communications revealed that Carlson privately held a different view than his on-air persona. Carlson told confidants that he "passionately" hated former President Donald Trump and that Trump's tenure in the White House was a "disaster."
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He also used misogynistic terms to criticize pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and reject her conspiracies about the 2020 election, even as those wild theories got airtime on Fox News.
April 25, 2023
The lawsuit exposed how Carlson privately held a different view than his on-air persona. A Dominion spokesperson did not comment on Carlson's departure from Fox. Carlson did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
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Carlson's departure from Fox News comes after the network severed ties with right-wing personality Dan Bongino, who had been a regular fixture on the network's programming and hosting a weekend show.
"Folks, regretfully, last week was my last show on Fox News on the Fox News Channel," Bongino said on Rumble, chalking up the exit to a contract dispute. "So the show ending last week was tough. And I want you to know it's not some big conspiracy. I promise you. There's not, there's no acrimony. This wasn't some, like, WWE brawl that happened. We just couldn't come to terms on an extension. And that's really it."
Fox News said, "We thank Dan for his contributions and wish him success in his future endeavors."
Shares of Fox Corp. (FOXA) fell 5% on the news. The stock had been up slightly before the announcement.
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