Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News has given CNN and MSNBC some cover for their in-house staffing issues. Of course, Carlson leaving Fox dominated the news, with liberals popping champagne regarding the departure of the host they hated the most. It also allowed CNN to announce the firing of Don Lemon, which Spencer noted was a bit of a shambles since the liberal network initially didn’t confirm Lemon’s exit, claiming he took to social media first to vent. Later that day, CNN finally admitted that Lemon had left the network.
Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) April 24, 2023
Over the weekend, Leah wrote about a significant staffing shift at NBCUniversal, where one of its executives was screwing around with the female staff, leading to his resignation:
NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell has resigned following an investigation into a complaint of inappropriate conduct, parent company Comcast Corp. announced Sunday.
In a statement, Shell said he’s “truly sorry” for disappointing his colleagues.
“I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” Shell said. “I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege.”
Shell’s resignation, effective immediately, was mutually agreed upon with Comcast and comes after an investigation by outside counsel into a complaint from the woman, who is a “veteran journalist at the company,” according to WSJ.
A sex scandal and an insufferable blowhard fell from grace, which would have been major news, though Tucker soaked up the spotlight for obvious political reasons. If anything, both networks should clean house of other troublemakers while the going is good. Given the Carlson news, there will never be another time when they could park an aircraft carrier behind a house and have no one notice.
And the palace intrigue there will continue until the former Fox News host clarifies why he decided to leave or was fired. There are competing narratives ranging from Rupert Murdoch ordering the code red to editorial disputes over his segments, which boiled over, some of which don’t make sense. One narrative regarding his departure was grounded in the January 6 riot, where supposedly he was going to discuss the 60 Minutes segment on Ray Epps, the man who many alleged was a federal agent who cajoled the Trump-supporting crowd into storming the Capitol Building. Executives rejected this segment, and Murdoch was reportedly uneasy with Carlson’s commentary on the issue, an odd development since Tucker has said things far more controversial.
These incidents come in threes, so who’s next? Does CBS or ABC News have some staffing issues? Is there another Matt Lauer sex dungeon story that’s about to drop?
Probably not, but Lemon’s departure appeared to be an event that was bound to happen based on the many issues on set of the morning show that he was relegated to after his removal from his primetime slot. The Shell news is something rather different, and one that has benefitted from no one caring about a ‘Me Too’ fiasco, thanks to the internal drama at Fox News.