Monday saw the surprising news that Fox has parted ways with long-time Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Carlson has long had a reputation for saying outrageous things, to the point where he was a key figure referenced in the defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox (which the company settled for $787.5 million last week). But there had been little indication the company was too concerned with his comments, especially given his show’s ratings. On Monday, though, Fox put out a statement on moving on from Carlson:
🚨#BREAKING: @FoxNews said it and @TuckerCarlson "have agreed to part ways."
—"We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor." pic.twitter.com/joko0ZegAC— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) April 24, 2023
Conservative host Carlson had hosted Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News since 2016, and had been a political analyst for Fox News since 2009. Before that, he worked at MSNBC (2005-09), PBS (2004-05), and CNN (2000-05, where his 2001-05 co-hosting of Crossfire was cited as an inspiration for later sports debate shows like First Take), as well as a writer for publications including The Weekly Standard. And he had a lot of notable interactions with the sports world over the years. Here are five of them:
Claiming Michael Vick “should have been executed” (2010): This was before Tucker Carlson Tonight, and was during Carlson’s appearance as a panelist on another Fox News show, but it remains one of the wildest sports takes in a while, with Carlson declaring Vick’s role in a dogfighting ring to be worth execution.
There, Carlson said “I’m a Christian, I’ve made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances. But Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did [it] in a heartless and cruel way. And I think, personally, he should’ve been executed for that. He wasn’t, but the idea that the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs?” After a week of backlash, he eventually said “I overspoke. I’m not comfortable with the death penalty under any circumstances. Of course I don’t think he should be executed. But I do think what he did is truly appalling.”)
Accusing LeBron James of “inciting violence” (2020): Fox News personalities have often criticized James, with Laura Ingraham’s “Shut up and dribble” 2018 comments particularly standing out (and providing a title for a James-produced docuseries on the NBA and social activism). Carlson has had many of his own comments on James over the year, including a rant in June 2020 claiming James was “inciting violence” with his support for protests against police violence:
Interviewing Kristi Noem on a veto of a bill restricting transgender athletes’ participation in sports (2021): The wider debate on transgender athletes in sports has really ramped up this year, as have legislative efforts to block or restrict those athletes’ participation. But that’s been a subject of some discussion for years, especially at Fox News. And Carlson jumped on it in a big way in March 2021 with an interview of South Dakota governor Kristi Noem on her veto of a bill on that front, one where he accused her of “caving to the NCAA“:
Interviewing April Hutchinson on powerlifting against trans athletes (2023): Speaking of those movements to restrict trans athletes’ sports participation, Carlson has been fiery on that front recently as well, including with a March 2023 interview of Team Canada powerlifter April Hutchinson where she talked about how “outraged” she was by a court decision forcing USA Powerlifting to let trans athletes compete in their competitions:
Hosting Don Cherry’s defense of anti-immigration remarks (2019): Speaking of Canada, which Carlson recently proposed invading in one of his “Tucker Carlson Originals” segments on Fox News streaming service Fox Nation, he’s often featured that country in his sports bits. One notable example came in 2019, when long-time CBC and Sportsnet Hockey Night In Canada commentator Don Cherry lost that job after a rant saying that immigrants don’t buy Remembrance Day poppies. That led to Carlson giving Cherry a big American platform, and Cherry continuing to rant about how Canadian cities have supposedly changed thanks to immigration.
Carlson has come up in many other contexts in the sports world as well. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who has appeared on many Fox News programs and even expressed interest in hosting a show there, recently said (in the same podcast where he said he’d interview Ku Klux Klan leaders) he refuses to go on Carlson’s show, and called Carlson’s recent coverage of the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection “BS” last month. Barstool Sports’ Francis Ellis, who had guested on Fox News regularly, said on a hot mic in December that Fox News is “trafficking in hate,” particularly blasting Carlson there.
And Carlson did have some more regular sports conversations, including one with Keith Hernandez in January about the length of baseball games. But it’s his fiery takes that particularly stand out, and the sampling above illustrates that. We’ll see where Carlson goes from here, and if he winds up talking about sports at his next outlet. At any rate, we’ll always have the takes he’s delivered to date, and his role in making debate shows in general and FS1’s controversial approach in particular such a part of the modern sports TV landscape.
(There are also some remaining interesting questions about what may become of the documentary on the UFC and Dana White Carlson announced in September. At that time, that was headed to Fox Nation, but it does not appear to have run yet. So we’ll see if it finds a home there or elsewhere, and if it does air somewhere, we’ll see if it winds up being one of Carlson’s fiery and memorable sports moments.)
[Image from …of Record on YouTube]
