On Apr. 24, Fox News announced that they would be cutting ties with pundit and the arguable “face of the network,” Tucker Carlson. The network reported that the two “agreed to part ways” and thanked him for his service.

The move came as a shock to many as Carlson’s show aired at its regularly scheduled time slot that previous Friday with no implication whatsoever that it would be his last show. In addition, on the day of his firing, the network was advertising his interview with 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy later that night. 

Some have pointed to the timeliness of his firing as, just under a week before, Fox News settled a $787.5 million lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems in relation to conspiracy theories related to the security of the 2020 presidential election. During the hearings, Carlson was thrust into the spotlight as texts suggesting that Carlson knew the network’s reporting of election conspiracy theories was false but reported on them anyway. Others have also pointed to Carlson’s history of disparaging remarks towards Fox executives, including calling a female executive a misogynistic slur. Ultimately, the exact reason for Carlson’s departure is currently unknown.

While the news of his exit trended throughout social media, his fellow Fox News hosts and top executives have been near-silent on the situation surrounding his termination. Allegedly, the call for Carlson’s firing came directly from News Corps CEO Rupert Murdoch, founder and owner of Fox News since 1996.

Two days after his firing, Carlson broke his silence and posted a two-minute video on his Twitter. He never directly addressed his termination, but stated “Debates…are not permitted in American media. Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it.”

Margaret Farrar,  professor of Political Science at John Carroll University, commented on the use of conspiracy theories that some believe may have led to Carlson’s departure. “The kind of conspiracy theories Tucker Carlson advanced at Fox are appealing to people because they offer compelling narratives about why life is hard.”

Dr. Farrar went on to contend that “Carlson was able to translate people’s desire to know into perpetual, cynical suspicion and he spun the most flagrant falsehoods into seemingly legitimate political discourse.”

Carlson’s firing occurred during a string of news network sackings, as CNN cut ties with anchor Don Lemon that same day and, a day before, FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver announced he was expecting to be laid off by ABC.