Earthquake Hits Cable TV News

Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson

It was Anchor's Away Monday with the sudden departures of Don Lemon at CNN and Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

Fox News released a statement Monday without citing why Carlson was leaving and noted a rotating set of hosts will cover the 8 p.m. slot. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the statement said.

Rodney Ho at ajc.com reports this is Fox News’ first major move since the media company settled a blockbuster defamation case last week with Dominion Voting Systems to the tune of $787.5 million.

“There’s no doubt someone was going down,” said Roland Martin, a former CNN political contributor who now runs his own Black Star Network. “You don’t pay out $787.5 million and keep the status quo.”

Carlson has not yet released any reaction to this action.

Lemon, who had been a co-host on CNN’s morning show until Monday, released a statement about his departure less than hour later. “I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN,” he wrote. “I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone at management would have had the decency to tell me directly.”

He added: “At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue do the work I have loved at the network. It is clear that there are some larger issues at play. With that said, I want to thank my colleagues and the many teams I have worked with for an incredible run.”

In a tweet, CNN called Lemon’s account “inaccurate.” The network said he was given an opportunity to meet with management but “instead released a statement on Twitter.”

Lemon ignited controversy earlier this year when he implied that Nikki Haley, a Republican former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina governor, was no longer in her prime at age 51. Women, he told his two female co-anchors, were really in their prime “in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.” When co-host Poppy Harlow, who is 40, objected, he said: “Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are.”

He was given sensitivity training and returned to air.

Tony Harris, a former CNN anchor now doing work at the History Channel, said he thought Lemon’s future at CNN was doomed when he lost his prime-time spot last fall and was placed on mornings, a time slot CNN has struggled with for decades.

“They undermined him,” Harris said. “I get that Don can be a polarizing figure, but that was a direction CNN endorsed for a good period of time.”

The New York Times, citing an unnamed source inside CNN, said CNN discovered some guests didn’t want to appear with Lemon.

As for Carlson, he was a player in the Dominion case, his private correspondence not matching up with what he was saying on air. Emails and texts collected from Fox executives and anchors, including Carlson, showed they did not believe many of the election fraud allegations that were being presented on the network as well as conspiracies about Dominion’s voting machines that proved to be false.

Carlson, 53, has worked at all three major cable news networks. He was a commentator with CNN from 2000 to 2005. He was part of MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. He hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News from 2016 until this past Friday.