Tucker Carlson, a controversial news television host, has parted ways with Fox News Media, where he was the network’s most-watched anchor.
Carlson’s wild theories around crypto
Carlson joined Fox News in 2009 as a contributor and became the co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend” from 2012 to 2016. He then began his popular nightly show in November 2016 and moved to the 8 p.m. slot in April 2017 until today when he parted ways with the network.
Over his career on the media network, he has made wild theories on bitcoin and the crypto market. The most significant was on Jan. 18, 2023, when he proposed a curious conspiracy theory on twitter to link airline delays in Canada and the U.S. with a bitcoin price rise.
He suggested that the computer outage that led to several flights being non-operational could have resulted from ransomware, and the government may have made large BTC purchases to pay the ransom. Hence, he said, there was a BTC rise of more than 20% after the travel chaos.
While his fan base seemed to believe that his theory was reasonable while the crypto community was quick to dismiss the theory. For example, Stack Hodler mentioned that the recovery of the crypto markets was more likely as a result of $5 billion in assets from FTX being recovered.
The news of Carlson’s departure was met with rejoicing from Fox News critics. Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a Jan. 6 investigative committee member, tweeted that after all Tucker’s lies and defamation, it was time.
Fox’s defamation lawsuit
After a large defamation lawsuit, Fox has made headlines in the last few weeks. Dominion Voting Systems made the lawsuit that alleged the network’s hosts, including Carlson, made conspiracy theories about the company. Carlson was to testify at trial, but the parties settled for $787.5 million last week.
Notably, the news surprised many people, including Carlson himself, as he ended his last show on Friday by telling viewers he would be back on Monday. Meanwhile, Fox News has lost $950 million in market cap after Carlson’s exit from the network.
