It was the biggest story of last week — Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News.
I am not going to report that story in all its detail, as you've undoubtedly heard it from a million angles by now.
If you haven't heard about it yet — congrats, you have successfully detached yourself from all earthly desire, and transcended to a plane of existence known only to an enlightened few.
For the rest of us, this story was thrown in our faces all last week. Theories abound as to why he was fired, and the front runners include:
He was fired because of the Dominion lawsuit settlement.
He was fired because he angered Rupert Murdoch with some mean text messages
He was fired because he was leaving anyway and Fox News couldn't afford him
He was fired because he spoke at the Heritage Foundation about God, and Rupert Murdoch, or his son-in-law, hates God.
In my opinion, none of these explanations make a lot of sense. I've believed most of them at some point or another over the last week, but none of them have really held up.
First, the Dominion Theory can't be true because Fox News didn't lose any money on Tucker Carlson in that suit. Dominion had not named Tucker as a person in the case.
Secondly, while Tucker said some nasty things about Murdoch, I find it hard to believe that was the reason he was fired.
Murdoch is a billionaire that has made millions on Tucker Carlson, as well as countless other staff members who share no love for him.
It is no secret that many at Fox News are not fond of Rupert Murdoch, yet they are not getting canned. Is it likely that Murdoch would fire his No.1 money-maker over some private texts?
I doubt it.
The third theory — he was going to leave anyway — is obviously false. Tucker's team was caught totally off-guard and he made every indication that he would be returning after the weekend.
Finally, there is the theory that Tucker likes God, and that Rupert Murdoch (or his girlfriend's son, or whatever) hates God.
I confess that there may be something to this, but again it seems like Tucker has spoken about religious values over and over again and not been fired for it. So why now?
If you want to hear about that theory, you can read about it here.
I, however, have a different theory — Tucker Carlson wasn't fired from Fox News at all.
He was fired from BlackRock.
Let me prove it.
I Didn't Want to Write This
Before we go any further, let me just say that I didn't want to write about this story.
Tucker Carlson is not about to lose his platform, and I have it on good authority that his wildly handsome salary will be picked up by other conservative publishers.
I think he will be just fine.
Initially, therefore, I thought I wouldn't write about it at all — I mean there are still Americans in Afghanistan, our President is a foreign asset with dementia, his son is an international criminal, World War 3 is right around the corner, etc. etc.
Then I came across an article by Michael Rectenwald at The Mises Institute, and I realized that Carlson's departure may be more forward-looking then I thought...
In his article, Rectenwald argues that BlackRock may be at the heart of Tucker's departure.
I thought his theory was the strongest, and it explains the why now? better than most other explanations, so I thought I would share it with you.
Between a Rock and A Hard Place— Black Rock Pressures Fox News
What does BlackRock have to do with Tucker Carlson?
If you didn't know, as of February of this year BlackRock owns almost a fifth of Fox News. With its unspoken partner, Vanguard, it owns well over a fifth.
If that surprises you, then you may also be surprised to learn that BlackRock is the top shareholder in a few other media companies as well —
Times Warner
Comcast
Disney
News Corp
CBS
MSNBC
NBC
CNN
Sky Media Group
It is the top shareholder in four of the six media companies that together comprise 90% of all american media. It owns huge chunks of media companies like CNN and Fox News.
The next biggest shareholder in all of these companies is Vanguard, which owns the majority of shares at.... BlackRock.
No problem there, right FTC?
If you're looking for who controls the media in America, look no further than the +$10 trillion asset manager.
Officially, of course, BlackRock and Vanguard are passive fund managers and therefore exert no influence on the companies they own.
And if you believe that, you probably also believe that Warren Buffett made $90B by simply leafing through the Sunday paper with no insider information.
For those of you who are still with me, you may be wondering why BlackRock would pressure Fox News to fire Carlson.
The reasons are probably three-fold:
He was critical of Ukraine, and frequently reported on the financial corruption involving BlackRock
He criticized pharmaceuticals that BlackRock is heavily invested in
There is an election beginning.
Let's take a quick look at each.
BlackRock's War
If you didn't know, BlackRock has been deeply involved with the war in Ukraine.
On the one hand, it has partially funded the Russian side, and made most of the destruction possible to begin with.
On the other hand, BlackRock is set to make massive fortunes re-building Ukraine.
Tucker Carlson has criticized BlackRock extensively for its dealings with President Zelensky and its money-making in Ukraine.
If the war is wrapping up in the next few months, which seems likely at this point, will BlackRock still have money-making opportunities it doesn't want Carlson putting a spotlight on?
BlackRock's Drugs
Another area Carlson has demonized BlackRock and their investments is Big Pharma.
BlackRock made billions off of the Fauci-Virus vaccine, and is still pouring more money into pharmaceutical research world-wide.
If there was another crisis on the horizon in 2024 that needed more drugs to be forcibly pushed on an ever sicker public, would BlackRock want Carlson there to cover it?
BlackRock's Election
There is another story that ran at the same time as Carlson's — Don Lemmon was fired from CNN.
The only thing these two men share is the fact that BlackRock doesn't like their messaging — Carlson for his criticisms, and Don Lemmon because he's an idiot.
Could it be that the timing of their departures was to prepare for an election cycle? Could BlackRock have put pressure on both CNN and Fox News to fire these two talking heads in order to tighten up the messaging for 2024?
It's just a theory...
Another Theory
Just one last note. In an upcoming podcast (more on that soon), I sit down with a media expert who believes that Fox News may be preparing for another forthcoming lawsuit.
In that lawsuit, Fox News anticipates Carlson to be named as a party, and the corporation does not wish to pay his damages on the heels of their dominion suit.
That theory, if true, makes a lot of sense as to the timing of Carlson's departure, but we'll have to wait and see.
As always, thanks for reading!
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