TMZ: Newsmax Is Offering Tucker Carlson His Own Show. They're Also Offering to Let Him Program the Entire Network.

In other words, they're not offering Tucker Carlson a show, they're offering him the whole network.

Newsmax can't afford to pay Tucker Carlson what he'd command in salary, so they're almost certainly offering him an ownership stake in the company, too.

This would work out well for me. Newsmax is on Pluto (that is, it's available on streaming, unlike Fox.)

Before getting to that:

Rupert Murdoch, who is, of course, a big fan of Zelenskyy and unlimited commitment to the Ukranian cause, just had a conversation with Zelenskyy a couple of weeks before Murdoch fired Tucker.

The topic of the conversation? Zelenskyy didn't like Tucker Carlson's skeptical coverage.

The NYT:

Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch held a previously unreported call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this spring in which the two discussed the war and the anniversary of the deaths of Fox News journalists last March. The Ukrainian president had a similar conversation with Lachlan Murdoch on March 15, which Zelenskyy noted in a little-noticed aside during a national broadcast last month.

The conversations came weeks before the Murdochs fired their biggest star and most outspoken critic of American support for Ukraine, Tucker Carlson. Senior Ukrainian officials had made their objections to Carlson's coverage known to Fox executives, but Zelenskyy did not raise it on the calls with the Murdochs, according to one person familiar with the details of the calls.

Well Rupert Murdoch was at least aware. Pretty sure it would have come up on a call with his Hero.

Rupert Murdoch's Donor Class/GOPe palz are all praising him for firing Tucker:

But Carlson's firing will immediately relieve pressure on key Capitol Hill Ukraine supporters whom Carlson had criticized on air -- and sometimes pressed behind the scenes to change their positions on the war.

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has been one of the most outspoken Republican supporters of the US support for Ukraine, stepping out of line to occasionally reprimand figures in his own party who do not share his views on the subject.

Regardless of the reason for Carlson's departure, more moderate pro-Ukraine members of the Republican caucus on the Hill are not hiding their relief.

"There have been some that have argued that he was setting foreign policy for the Republican Party, which I find to be bizarre. Certainly not for me," Sen. Mitt Romney told the Hill. "To the primary [Republican] voter, the active participant, the grassroot voter, he's a person they listen to and has a big influence."

This is just another piece of the puzzle. Rupert Mudoch wants his network parroting Rupert Murdoch's opinions about everything. He does not want a Tucker Carlson questioning his Corporate Agenda and worse yet, becoming bigger than Fox itself. Whether it's Tucker Carlson running down his corporate buddies, or his pet politicians like Mitch McConnell, or upsetting Rupert Murdoch by suggesting that the federal asset Ray Epps was a federal asset, or questioning his Boomer instinct to support America's involvement in every single conflict in the world, or his ex-fianc&eactue;e wanting Tucker to plow her up her stinkcooter...

The old man brought ego and vanity into business. Very unwise.

Newsmax wants Tucker to come in and make them a Fox-Killer.

At this point, I think Tucker is probably very interested in that scenario himself.

Take my network, please.

Well, those are not exactly the words TMZ used as it discusses the courtship of Tucker Carlson by the conservative media outlet Newsmax, but it is reporting that Newsmax wants to give Carlson more than just a show as a way to attract him.

The TMZ report is based on what it called "sources with direct knowledge" and said Newsmax is "floating the idea of letting him program the whole channel, not just his own show."

From a ratings perspective, as TMZ noted, who precedes and follows a show can have a lot to do with the size of any given show's audience.

With Carlson still in the middle of exiting Fox, there are no offers on the table, but the report said that "network execs have made it clear to people around him, they would basically give him a big say in rebranding their channel."

Tucker Carlson has confirmed that he "still works for Fox." Therefore, Fox is still attempting to claim, "You're not fired, you'll just be paid to not ever be on TV."

Meanwhile, someone -- certainly not Fox News or Irena Briganti -- leaks more video of Tucker to Media Matters, this time. (Last time the leak went to the NYT.)

This new clip shows Tucker knocking how unusable the Fox Nation website is, and how no one will watch the content he posts there because the site itself is so bad.

Megyn Kelly believes this newest leak is Fox's attempt to warn Newsmax away from bringing Tucker in -- telling Newsmax, "You can't trust him, he's not a team-player, he'll talk about you behind your backs!"

This has to be coming from a woman. Who the hell else would care about this bullshit?

She's talking with LibsofTikTok there.

posted by Ace at 04:24 PM

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