While Tucker Carlson has lost a platform with his departure from the Fox News primetime lineup, retired Vanderbilt University law professor and author Carol Swain believes the shake-up will allow Carlson to share his message with an even larger audience.
“I believe that all things work to the good and that Tucker will be given a larger platform, and he will be able to reach more people because of what Fox did to him,” Swain told NTD News.
Carlson had led the eponymous “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News since 2016, and had been a fixture on the news channel long before that. Carlson’s conservative news commentary program had been one of the network’s most successful shows, and regularly garnered more than 3 million viewers per episode.
Swain suggested Carlson’s break with Fox News could help him carry his views to an audience with a broader range of political views.
“As conservatives, we need to be reaching Democrats and independents, a wider part of America,” Swain said. “And we know that millions of people have heard Tucker’s speeches, millions of people have watched what Fox did to him. And I think that will give the Conservatives a bigger platform, if nothing else.”
Carlson Ouster Could Unsettle Network’s Other Employees
Swain suggested that other Fox News employees may feel a growing sense of unease about their own job security at the network.
“The ones that you see that survive, they are the ones that will toe the company line, they are not there … to discover truth or to bring both sides,” she said. “Whatever the narrative is [that] the network wants to push, that’s what they expect their hosts to do. And Tucker had fallen out of line.”
Swain said Carlson had taken “bold stances” in his coverage and “was pushing the envelope” while working with Fox News.
“And so I’m sure that he was not surprised when they decided they had to act,” she said.
Though generally considered conservative, Carlson regularly expressed populist opinions and spoke of his skepticism of government. He also repeatedly opened his platform to a range of political views, at times bringing on left-wing anti-war activists such as Jimmy Dore and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters.
At times, Carlson shared his skepticism of the U.S. government’s actions—both domestically and abroad. In his two-part “Patriot Purge” documentary special for the Fox News streaming service, Fox Nation, Carlson suggested that federal agents may have played a role in provoking and inciting some of the chaos seen at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Carlson again challenged the official version of government actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 when he aired previously undisclosed security footage from that day that showed police officers peacefully walking around the building with one of the defendants, Jacob Chansley—who is often referred to as the “Q-Anon Shaman.”
“There were many issues that Tucker covered that the other journalists would not touch,” Swain said. “If Fox doesn’t cover it, The New York Times doesn’t cover it. CNN doesn’t cover it. For many people, it’s like it didn’t happen.”
Carlson’s Replacement
Many of Carlson’s fans have indicated that he was their only reason for watching Fox News, and that they would stop watching the network and unsubscribe from the Fox Nation streaming service.
Fox News viewership during Carlson’s former 8 p.m. time slot has also fallen in the days since he and the network parted ways. By the end of the week in which Carlson left, ratings for the 8 p.m. program fell by 56 percent.
Longtime Fox News presenter Brian Kilmeade initially filled in on the 8 p.m. slot, while libertarian commentator Lawrence Jones took over this past week.
Swain—who is African American—also shared her apprehension with Fox News naming Jones—who is also black—as a potential replacement for Carlson.
“It would look like Fox was using Lawrence Jones, and it would look like affirmative action,” Swain said.
Swain said she has received pushback for questioning Fox News’s decision to bring Jones on for the time slot. She said her comments are not meant to criticize Jones, but to instead expose the network for “virtue signaling” and for its “hypocrisy” in criticizing affirmative action in other areas of society.
Fox News did not respond to an NTD request for comment about Carlson’s departure from the network. A Fox News spokesperson did respond to Swain’s comments about the network’s decision to bring Jones on in Carlson’s old time slot.
“Dr. Carol Swain’s comments were disgraceful. Lawrence Jones is a rising star at Fox News and we’re thrilled to have him on our team,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment before this article was published. This article has since been updated to include the network’s comments.
