Described as “the most popular prime-time host in cable news” by the New York Times and hailed as “ratings gold” by Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News shocked many, but not all, as recently explained on a ‘Steak for Breakfast’ podcast special featuring National Pulse editor, Raheem Kassam.
Kassam, who first predicted a spate of Murdoch firings back in February, addressed the expensive decision to “part ways” with Carlson.
“I live right here on Capitol Hill and I hear all of these things on a day-to-day basis, to the point where when somebody says to me ‘oh, Tucker’s out at Fox’ I go ‘yeah, obviously’ — because it’s such an obvious thing to have happen when you hear the talk happening around town,” Kassam explained.
“I am not shocked by it. I think for a long time now there has been an uneasiness about Tucker’s editorial independence as far as the corporate class at Fox were concerned,” he continued.
Listen to the full episode, here, or hit the play button below:
“We saw the Dominion lawsuit — let’s call it what it is, the State Street Capital lawsuit — went quite a long way to disturbing that settlement within Fox’s prime-time line-up [but] I’ve said previously that Fox and Tucker was not a relationship that was particularly long for this world.”
Our Special Edition of the Steak for Breakfast Podcast is LIVE! We sat down with the Editor-in-Chief of @TheNatPulse, @RaheemKassam for a Steaksclusive interview! Everything from @TuckerCarlson, @realDonaldTrump, @JoeBiden & all in between • Spotify: https://t.co/JfE8f17VvN pic.twitter.com/T4V5dwA0vK
— Steak for Breakfast (@SteakforPodcast) April 24, 2023
Embarrassing the Deep State.
Among other reasons for Fox’s increasing uneasiness with the success of its biggest star, Kassam cited “the Ray Epps saga”, and in particular the fallout from the notorious January 6th attendee’s 60 Minutes appearance, in which he accused Carlson of being “obsessed” with him.
Kassam stressed, however, that conservatives should not waste too much energy agonising over Carlson’s exit and future job prospects over the coming days, as there is much else coming out of the RINO establishment they need to keep an eye on.
“Tucker has the entire world at his feet coming out of Fox News, and so people shouldn’t necessarily feel nervous that he’s going to go away,” Kassam said.
He did concede, however, that Carlson’s old prime-time slot, particularly for reaching “people over the age of 45, 50, whose habit is to turn on the television, not to load up Rumble or go listen to the podcast side of things,”, had value — a fact reflected in the damage the break with Carlson did to Fox on the stock market.
“There is a loss there,” Kassam said — but he added that “Murdoch will have calculated these things.”
“He’s off his rocker but he’s not off his rocker.”
Murdoch has most recently been known on the political right for trying to shift GOP support behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which has proved more difficult than many first suspected.
This is (Also) CNN.
Don Lemon, who was booted from CNN the same day, may be facing a less certain future, however.
Lemon’s termination, Kassam said, was also “totally and utterly predictable“, and his “diva, toys out of the pram statement” about said termination risible.
“Like, dude, the company has been leaking info out about you for the last several months. You expected to be treated with what? You wanted a Rolex on your way out?” Kassam asked.
More seriously, he noted that the changes that have roiled CNN over the last year have “not amounted to really anything in terms of the feedback they’re getting from their test audiences or in terms of bringing audience numbers back.”
“I think a lot of people at CNN are probably going to be looking at Lemon after 17 years being turfed out and going ‘Oh boy, I’m next’.”
