Tucker Carlson enraged Fox News by calling an exec the c-word and feuding with its PR department before his ousting, report says
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- Tucker Carlson feuded with Fox News executives before he was ousted, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- This included calling one senior executive the c-word, sources told the Journal.
- Fox did not give an explanation when it announced Carlson's abrupt departure on Monday.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson infuriated network executives before his ousting on Monday, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, precipitating his exit.
Fox News announced on Monday that Carlson had been dropped from the network, where he was its most-watched prime-time host.
The decision to part company came less than a week after Fox settled a legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, which had accused it of spreading false information about the 2020 presidential election.
According to sources, Fox lawyers told Carlson weeks before his firing that they'd managed to get a court to redact information about him calling a senior executive the c-word from legal filings that were part of the network's battle with Dominion.
But the sources said that Carlson was unhappy, and that he wanted his feelings about the executive made public.
Carlson criticizing management in private texts, revealed as part of the legal battle, were a major factor in his firing, the sources said, according to the Journal.
Fox ultimately agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million.
Carlson was also angry that the company did not do more to protect him from negative media stories about the case, sources said.
And he complained to Fox executives about press coverage, according to the Journal.
Carlson also had to be given an intermediary between himself and Fox's communications department, sources said, as the relationship soured in recent years.
Sources also told the Journal that some Fox executives were worried that Carlson had begun to view himself as bigger than the network, and that he couldn't be properly managed.
Insider contacted Fox News for comment but did not immediately receive a response.