Fox News’s Tucker Carlson took a moment out of his program on Monday evening to address concerns that he was leaving the network. The statement came after a doctored post circulated on social media over the weekend, which showed a fake screenshot of what seemed to be Carlson on a Parler account announcing that he would be starting at another outlet next month.
“Over the weekend we got a lot of calls asking if we’re leaving Fox News. Ironically, at that very moment we were working on a project to expand the amount of reporting and analysis we do in this hour across other parts of the company,” he explained. “This show is not going anywhere, it’s getting bigger. People who run Fox News want more of it, not less, and we are grateful for that. We’ll have specifics soon.”
Tucker Carlson addresses recent calls for him to leave Fox News:
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 17, 2020
"This show isn't going anywhere. It's getting bigger. The people who run Fox News want more of it, not less, and we're grateful for that." pic.twitter.com/kKMvkKDK42
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 5.36 million viewers in October and its monthly average was the highest of any show in cable news history, according to Fox News.
The statement from Carlson comes as many viewers have lost trust in the network over its election coverage, including calling Arizona despite the race coming down to a razor thin margin and projecting Democrats would pick up seats in the House, which they acknowledged they were wrong about. Beyond that, host Neil Cavuto upset viewers when he cut away from White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's press conference on alleged voter fraud.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just think we have to be very clear: she's charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue to show you this," Cavuto said.
Carlson seemed to address what happened on his program, arguing, "You can't just cut away from coverage you don't like."
Then, host Sandra Smith was caught on a hot mic moment grimacing and questioning a guest pointing out that it's not the media's role to declare winners.
And most recently, Leland Vittert openly laughed at Erin Perrine, the director of press communications for the Trump campaign, in a contentious interview about Team Trump's legal strategy.
Even if Carlson stays, the network has a lot of work to do to regain its trust and credibility among longtime viewers.