Task: The star must be silenced with "secret folder"

Tucker Carlson  

Task: The star must be silenced with "secret folder" 

 

Of:  

 

John Edgar  

 

Published: Less than 20 min ago  

 

NEWS 

 

It is not yet clear where Tucker Carlson, 53, will take his millions of followers - in a move that could affect the outcome of the election.  

 

Meanwhile, the fired star is silent. 

 

Fox News reportedly has a secret folder to keep him in check. 

 

The latest revelation about the game behind Fox News' decision to get rid of its biggest star comes from within its own group. 

 

It concerns the sensational messages that Tucker Carlson sent to colleagues and that became part of the investigation into the vote counting company Dominion. 

 

Gendered words about the boss  

 

The company sued Fox News for multi-billion sums after the television channel spread conspiracy theories that Dominion participated in a coup to rig the election in Joe Biden's favor. 

 

The Wall Street Journal, part of the Fox Corporation, writes on Wednesday that the television channel's lawyers managed to stop one of Carlson's messages from ending up in the legal documents that were later made public. 

 

It concerns an occasion when Tucker Carlson called a senior executive at Fox a "cunt".  

 

According to the newspaper, the condescending epithet about the management contributed to his downfall.  

 

And the TV channel can sit on more information about their fired profile that they use as security.  

Tucker Carlson. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP  

 

Secret information in folder  

 

The magazine Rolling Stone writes, with reference to eight sources, that the television channel has collected "dirty information" about Carlson in a secret folder. 

 

If the fired star tries to undercut his former employer, they are ready to act, the newspaper states. 

  

According to several of the sources, the file contains internal complaints about how he behaved in the workplace, disparaging comments about colleagues and managers and accusations of "a poisoned work environment". 

  

A former employee of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," producer Abby Grossberg, has sued the channel after "being subjected to sexist and anti-Semitic jokes by "male colleagues" on the star's show. 

  

Reports have suggested that the lawsuit was the final straw that prompted Rubert Murdoch, Fox News' 93-year-old chairman, to finally make the decision to fire Carlson. 

 

"Classic trick" 

 

According to Rolling Stone, it is a "badly kept secret" among employees that Fox News has long been collecting information about their profiles.  

 

Communications manager Irena Briganti is singled out as the brains behind the strategy. 

 

- Irena tries to have information about everyone. Profiles like Tucker there will be things on, people complaining. They encourage it and collect the data in a folder. It is a classic dirty trick, says a source to the newspaper.  

 

Fox News calls the information "absurd" and "totally false" in a statement to Rolling Stone. 

 

Tucker Carlson has been perhaps the most written about man in the United States in recent days.

 

Tucker Carlson was host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Fox News. Photo: Richard Drew/AP  

 

Talks a lot with Trump  

 

The 53-year-old may be "just" a TV profile, but for the political elites in Washington, his future is of great interest.  

 

For those on the Republican side, especially those thinking of running for president, Tucker Carlson could be downright crucial.  

 

With a daily viewership of more than three million and even more following him on other channels, the conservative profile has the power to lift, or sink, a candidate.  

 

In the weeks before Carlson's unexpected resignation, Donald Trump had a number of private conversations with him, trying to secure his support ahead of the primaries.  

 

Tucker Carlson attended a golf tournament with former US President Donald Trump. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP  

 

And all news surrounding the conservative star is followed intensively. 

 

Carlson now has a form on his site where followers can sign up to find out "what Tucker is up to next". Anyone who signs up receives an email inviting them to buy stuff with their name on it. 

 

Selling socks  

 

The range includes a shirt for $155 and a pair of socks for $25, writes journalist  Brian Stelter on 

Twitter. 

 Regardless of how Tucker Carlson intends to use his commercially viable name in the future, he is not short of offers.

 

The most concrete so far comes from One America Network, a conservative TV channel to the right of Fox News. 

 

“It would be great if we could get Tucker! I could give him about $25 million. And he would really deserve it," writes channel owner Robert Herring in an email to the Times of San Diego newspaper.  

 

Author and journalism professor Robert Schmuhl tells Newsweek that Tucker Carlson will be "a major player in the 2024 presidential campaign" regardless of where he ends up.