How Tucker Carlson came to dominate American media and reshape Fox News in his image 

Tucker Carlson’s three-decade media career saw him transform from a little-known, bow-tie-wearing CNN commentator into one of the most powerful figures in American media.

The 53-year-old is out of Fox News days after it paid $787.5 million to settle the Dominion lawsuit. He has been the face of the network’s political coverage for years through his hugely successful nightly show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Carlson divided opinion — and drew fierce criticism from the left — with his polemic on everything from the 2020 presidential election to the Black Lives Matter movement.

But he wasn’t always known as a divisive right-wing pyre.

His career, which began in the mid-1990s, has included work for a wide variety of publications, including a long stint at CNN, and he is also the author of several books.

Carlson can be seen on his last Fox News broadcast on April 21

Carlson began his career in the 1990s as a fact-checker for Policy Review, a conservative magazine that ceased publication in 2013. He then worked as an opinion writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The early years of his print career also included a stint at The Weekly Standard, which closed in 2018.

As a print journalist, he wrote for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Esquire. But at the time, there were limits to who he was willing to work for.

In 1999, Carlson recounted how he had feared he would be “written off as a wing nut” if he joined The American Spectator, a conservative magazine.

His TV hiatus came in 2000 when he joined CNN and co-hosted The Spin Room.

Carlson was recognizable by his signature bow tie. He began wearing the tie in 1984 when he was a prep school student — only dropping it in the 2000s after a stranger who objected to the clothing yelled “obscenities” at him as he walked through New York’s Penn Station .

In 2004, while hosting Crossfire on CNN, Carlson was challenged by comedian and commentator Jon Stewart during a segment that is regularly dug up by Carlson’s critics.

Stewart accused the show and its hosts of “hurting America” ​​and mocked Carlson for his bow tie. “You’re doing theatre, when you should be doing debate, which would be great,” he said. “What you’re doing isn’t fair. What you’re doing is partisan hacking.’

Stewart also said that Carlson should go to journalism school. Crossfire was abolished several months later.

Carlson also spent three years at MSNBC and appeared on Dancing with the Stars in 2006 before joining Fox News in 2009.

It was here that Carlson became a household name through Tucker Carlson Tonight, which became the network’s flagship show and was often the top-rated show on cable news TV. In 2022, it averaged about 3.3 million viewers per show.

Carlson became a household name through Tucker Carlson Tonight, which became Fox News’ flagship show. In 2022, it averaged about 3.3 million viewers per show

Carlson, appearing on his last show on April 21, has made the culture wars a staple of his show in recent years

His position made him a leading voice in the culture wars, giving millions of Americans a fierce right-wing take on issues from identity politics to the Black Lives Matter movement.

But it was his take on the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 riots that arguably generated the most controversy.

His departure comes days after Fox settled with Dominion Voting Systems, which filed a defamation lawsuit alleging that hosts like Carlson knew President Trump’s claims of election fraud were untrue but pushed them for ratings.

Dominion sued for $1.6 billion and settled at the 11th hour for $787 million, narrowly avoiding an embarrassing and highly publicized trial where Carlson and other hosts would likely have been called as witnesses.

Carlson also came under fire for recent coverage of the January 6 riots, which claimed that most of those who stormed the Capitol were “orderly and meek” and had “obvious deference” to the building.