The king of the audiences of the queen of the channels of the American PAF is gone. The very controversial host Tucker Carlson left the no less maligned ultraconservative channel Fox News, Monday, April 24.
This departure - which would have been provoked by Rupert Murdoch, the big boss of the empire News Corp to which Fox News belongs - represents a "media and political earthquake", assured the news site Vox, summing up the general feeling of commentators.
Consequence of the Dominion scandal?
Fox News has been at the top of the ratings since the early 2000s in the United States. And Tucker Carlson was the star by gathering since 2017 more than three million viewers every night in front of his show at 20 p.m.
A formidable platform that allowed him to be one of the most influential voices on the far right of the political spectrum. "He embodied and accompanied the transformation of the Republican Party into a populist and anti-system movement," said Thomas Gift, director of the Center for the Study of Politics of the United States at University College London.
It is therefore a page of its history that turns Fox News by separating from Tucker Carlson. A decision that comes just a week after the end of the resounding defamation lawsuit brought against the chain by Dominion, a company manufacturing electronic voting machines that found itself at the heart of a conspiracy theory dear to fans of Donald Trump. "It is difficult to ignore the concomitance between this departure and this trial. But I would hesitate to see this as a signal that Rupert Murdoch is trying to correct the image of his channel," Gift said.
The trial had indeed lifted part of the veil on the internal kitchen of a channel ready to twist the neck of the factual reality to please the most fanatical pro-Trump Americans. And the shadow of the conspiracy theories promoted on Fox News by Tucker Carlson hung over the entire procedure.
As such, the network's star anchor could appear as the sacrificial lamb to try to restore Fox News' editorial image. It was necessary to separate from the main promoter on air of a potpourri of conspiracy theories around the so-called electoral fraud during the presidential election of 2020, which had "become too toxic a cause, even for Fox News," decrypts René Lindstädt, a political scientist at the University of Birmingham who wrote about the political influence of Rupert Murdoch's channel.
Tucker Carlson, an economic cost for Fox News
But restore the image for what? Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that this will boost audiences. "This departure will certainly not satisfy the channel's core target, which is Donald Trump's supporters, and it will certainly not convince Democrats that Fox News has become less partisan and worth watching," said Anurag Mishra, a specialist in US politics at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona.
And then Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham or Maria Bartiromo occupy a niche very similar to that of Tucker Carlson and do not seem threatened for the moment. In other words, if a "standardization" enterprise is underway, it is very limited.
In fact, the experts interviewed by France 24 believe that "it is an accumulation of reasons more or less related to the Dominion affair that led to the disgrace of Tucker Carlson in the eyes of Rupert Murdoch", summarizes René Lindstädt.
Thus, there is probably a personal dimension to this reference. The great unpacking of private conversations of Fox News stars during the Dominion trial "revealed that Tucker Carlson harshly criticized Rupert Murdoch in private, which the latter, who personally built the career of the anchor on air, must not have tolerated," says David Colon, historian who has written about Rupert Murdoch and media manipulation.
There are also the well-understood economic interests of Fox News executives. They will soon begin negotiations on increasing cable royalties (what operators pay Fox News to integrate the channel into their bouquet), and would seek to raise them above three dollars per subscriber. It is the channel's main source of income, far ahead of advertising. What does this have to do with Tucker Carlson? "Since the Dominion affair, the channel has faced increasingly urgent calls for its withdrawal from cable operators. By firing the host, Rupert Murdoch probably hopes to soften the criticism and make it easier to pass the increase, "says David Colon.
Too Trumpist and too anti-Trump at the same time
And then there's the Donald Trump case. "Tucker Carlson's relationship with the former president is complicated and contradictory, but in any case, it's a problem for the network," Gift said. Indeed, Fox News wants to put an end to its image as a pro-Trump propaganda organ. Other candidates in the Republican primary are getting more and more airtime, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But, at the same time, Fox News does not want to cut ties with the ex-president, who remains the favorite in polls on the right.
In either case, Tucker Carlson is a burden rather than an asset. On the one hand, "he continues to remain publicly a fervent defender of Donald Trump and all the conspiracy theories that he conveys," says Anurag Mishra. Indeed, when the star of the channel publicly takes up the cause, it is difficult to portray himself as a media open to other candidates.
But on the other hand, the Dominion trial revealed private messages in which Tucker Carlson reveals his hatred for Donald Trump. If the latter becomes the official candidate of the Republican Party for the presidential election of 2024, Donald Trump "could decide that Fox News is not trustworthy," says René Lindstädt.
See also One America News, the small disinformation channel that feeds Trump's tweets
In the meantime, this departure of Tucker Carlson is bad news for the campaign of the former president. Indeed, the former host with three million viewers was not only the spokesperson for Donald Trump's remarks. For René Lindstädt, "he also played the kingmaker" by trying to promote the rise of the Republicans closest to the former president, by promoting them on air.
The former president was also guaranteed to appear on Tucker Carlson's show whenever he wanted. "It's not so obvious now, and since Donald Trump hasn't started using Twitter again, he may run out of media space to express himself," Mishra said.
It's also a risky move for Fox News. Admittedly, this is not the first time that the channel has parted ways with a star who seemed irreplaceable. She survived the firing of two chain giants: Bill O'Reilly in 2017 and Glenn Beck in 2011.
But there is a difference with the current context. "In recent years there has been a proliferation of ultra-conservative media that want to overshadow Fox News. The latter must be very careful not to lose its historical audience that Tucker Carlson represented like no other", summarizes René Lindstädt. Small channels that are rising to the far right – such as Newsmax or One America News – would probably be delighted to offer refuge to Tucker Carlson and his three million fans.
The summary of the week France 24 invites you to look back on the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news with you everywhere! Download the France 24 app