Fox News host Greg Gutfeld broke his silence on Fox News and former host Tucker Carlson for the first time since his departure earlier this year.
In his latest episode of “Gutfeld!” on Dec. 1, Mr. Gutfeld made reference to Elon Musk telling major corporations like Disney not to advertise on X, formerly Twitter, in a New York Times interview last week. He praised Mr. Musk for his recent comments and made reference to his own network and Mr. Carlson.
Then he added: “If you don’t believe me, I’ve got two words for you: Tucker Carlson.” His comment drew gasps from the audience.
Earlier this year, in an unexpected move, Fox News announced that it “part[ed] ways” with Mr. Carlson, who had been the top-rated host on the network. Both Fox and Mr. Carlson have released few details about the separation, although Mr. Carlson did make reference to the situation in a podcast interview last week.
“I didn’t expect to get, you know, my show canceled Monday morning,” he told comedian Rosanne Barr, referring to the incident in April. “But I wasn’t, if I took three steps back, I was not surprised at all. First of all, television is like that. People get fired. There are all kinds of lines that no one will explain explicitly.”
He added, “They were very nice to me the entire time I was there, but I could feel that they strongly disagreed in the war in Ukraine stuff. But they really didn’t like that at all. The January 6 stuff.”
Weeks before he left Fox News, Mr. Carlson’s show released previously unaired footage released by House Republicans of the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the Capitol. He suggested to his viewers that federal agents likely triggered the breach while adding that the incident wasn’t nearly as bad what the media and Democrats claimed.
“I think a bunch of people quit over that,” Mr. Carlson said, referring to Fox News departures as he released the footage. “Chris Wallace should not be on television or Jonah Goldberg or you know what I mean? These are people who obviously the audience hated and shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but they were so outraged because they said. You know, it seems like there probably a lot of feds in the crowd on January 6.”
He added to Ms. Barr that “now it turns out, of course, they were way more even than I imagined. The whole thing was a complete setup.”
Fox News has not released a public statement on the reasons why Mr. Carlson departed. When asked for comment earlier this year, several Fox News spokespeople directed The Epoch Times to the news release announcing the move.
Musk Comments
After apologizing for a recent social media post about the Israel-Hamas conflict during a New York Times DealBook event last Wednesday, Mr. Musk criticized advertisers for fleeing the platform and accused the major brands of “blackmail.” He appeared to single out Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, who spoke earlier at the event and said an association with X was “not a positive one for us.”“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go [expletive] yourself,” he said at the event. “Go [expletive] yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience,” he added, likely referring to Mr. Iger.
In an X post last week, CEO Linda Yaccarino said that Musk had offered an apology and “an explicit point of view about our position.”
“And here’s my perspective when it comes to advertising: X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street—and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you. To our partners who believe in our meaningful work ... thank you,” she added.
