This weekend, Fox News accepted the resignation of key Tucker Carlson writer Blake Neff. Now the mega-popular network has followed up with a strongly word statement condemning his actions after it was discovered he used a pseudonym in an online forum to post hateful messages filled with racist, homophobic and misogynistic language and ideas.
The messages first came to light via a lengthy piece published by CNN. The writer allegedly posted on the forum under a handle honoring a Swedish King, and during his time there, he reportedly mocked and insulted a variety of religious and ethnic groups. The reaction from all involved was very swift. Blake Neff reportedly submitted his resignation letter. It was accepted by Fox News, and now we have a statement that was sent out to media partners yesterday. You can read it below…
Yesterday we learned that now former employee Blake Neff, a writer on Tucker Carlson Tonight, made horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist and homophobic comments under a pseudonym on the forum AutoAdmit.We want to make abundantly clear that Fox News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior. Neff’s abhorant conduct on this forum was never divulged to the show or the network until Friday, at which point we swiftly accepted his resignation. Make no mistake, actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our work force.Tucker will be addressing this on his show on Monday night.Thank you.Suzanne & Jay.
There’s obviously a lot you can take out of this statement, but I think the key takeaway here is that Tucker Carlson will address the matter on his show on Monday. It was unclear earlier this weekend whether the matter would be quietly swept under the rug with Neff’s removal from the show assumed to be enough of a statement in and of itself. Since Carlson is going to address it, however, there’s now a lot of interest and chatter as to whether he will use the situation to simply address what happened with the writer himself or whether he will use it as a springboard to clarify his larger feelings on racism, sexism and homophobia. The larger conversation might make sense since his racial views have been the subject of much conversation in the past, particularly after he said the United States’ white supremacy problem was a “hoax.”
Over the past few years, Tucker Carlson’s ratings have soared since he took over first for Megyn Kelly and then for Bill O'Reilly. Earlier this year, he broke the record for the highest average ratings for a cable news program in history (more than 4.3M viewers). A strong case could also be made that he’s quickly surpassing Sean Hannity as the true face of the cable news giant. At this point, it’s unclear whether the resignation of Blake Neff and the conversation surrounding his departure will have any effect on the ratings itself, but some of that may depend on how he addresses the matter on his show Monday.
