Fox News host Greg Gutfeld on Friday railed against what he described as the “censorship industrial complex,” made up of technology companies, the government and the news media.
His central example of censorship: Fox News’ ouster of Tucker Carlson.
“The fact is, Musk may be the last man standing between real freedom of speech and the suffocating block of this censorship industrial complex, which is made up of government, media, and tech forces,” Gutfeld said during Gutfeld!
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Earlier this week, Elon Musk issued a message to major advertisers who paused advertising on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Go fuck yourself.” Advertisers had balked at Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic tweet, which he later described as his “most foolish mistake.”
“He realizes that advertisers have no spine and can be easily cowed by special interest groups in cahoots with political allies,” Gutfeld said of Musk’s comment.
As though Gutfeld’s sweeping indictment of “advertisers” as a whole wasn’t enough he took it one step further: targeting his own network.
“If you don’t believe me, I’ve got two words for you: Tucker Carlson.”
The comment drew oos from the crowd and appeared to stun Gutfeld’s fellow co-hosts.
In April, Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott made the call to oust Carlson in part because he privately referred to Trump lawyer Sidney Powell as “that cunt” and a “fucking bitch” to other FOX employees, The Daily Beast first reported.
The decision, Gutfeld implied, showed Fox bending to the “censorship industrial complex.”
Carlson spoke out about his firing on Friday, acknowledging that Fox was “really” unhappy with his coverage of the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol.
“They were very nice to me the entire time I was there, but I could feel that they strongly disagreed in the war in Ukraine stuff,” Carlson said during a podcast appearance with Roseanne Barr. “But they really didn’t like that at all. The January 6th stuff.”
He added that “the whole thing was a complete setup,” referring to the Jan. 6 attack.
