News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) shares took a brief tumble Monday afternoon after Fox News Media announced that Tucker Carlson would be parting ways with the company.
Carlson is Fox New’s most-watched anchor, with this 8 pm time slot drawing an average of 3.25 million viewers in the first quarter of 2023.
The massive shakeup comes just days after Fox reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over a defamation suit that alleged Fox knowingly aired false statements about its voting machines.
Shares of News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) fell more than 1% immediately following the announcement but have recovered slightly since, trading 0.3% lower at $17.24 Monday afternoon.
It was the largest media defamation settlement in history and was caused in no small part by Carlson repeatedly accusing Dominion of working to influence the 2020 election in opposition to then-President Trump.
Multiple defamatory broadcasts
Specifically, Dominion pointed to 20 such defamatory broadcasts, including a January 26, 2021 episode that notably featured a rant from MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.
The right-wing anchor also made things harder for Fox when messages were revealed that showed him, along with other Fox hosts, ridiculing Trump and his lawyers’ claims that the election had been stolen.
Tucker Carlson Tonight will move forward with rotating hosts for the time being, the network said.
Meanwhile, veteran CNN host Don Lemon was fired by the network after 17 years. Lemon said he was “stunned” in a statement on Twitter.
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