NO, RUPERT MURDOCH DIDN'T FIRE TUCKER CARLSON BECAUSE CARLSON TALKED ABOUT RELIGION

Of all the explanations offered for why Fox News might have fired Tucker Carlson, this one, from Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman, seems the least plausible:

According to [a] source, Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch removed Carlson over remarks Carlson made during a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala on Friday night. Carlson laced his speech with religious overtones that even Murdoch found too extreme, the source, who was briefed on Murdoch’s decision-making, said. Carlson told the Heritage audience that national politics has become a manichean battle between “good” and “evil.” Carlson said that people advocating for transgender rights and DEI programs want to destroy America and they could not be persuaded with facts. “We should say that and stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates...I’ve tried. That doesn’t work,” he said. The answer, Carlson suggested, was prayer. “I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will,” he said. “That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” the source said.

Carlson talked about Christianity and prayer, and therefore Rupert Murdoch decided he was unfit to be on Fox? Really? Has Murdoch met any of Fox's other stars?

Here's a book published last November by Harris Faulkner, who hosts two daytime shows on Fox News:

The book was published by ... (checks notes) ... Fox News Books, an imprint of Murdoch's book publishing division, HarperCollins. Fox News Books also publishes several books by Shannon Bream, the host of Fox News Sunday, including The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak and The Love Stories of the Bible Speak. Bream also hosts a show called Women of the Bible Speak on Fox's streaming service, Fox Nation.

One of the co-hosts of Fox & Friends, Ainsley Earhardt, has a Fox Nation show called Ainsley's Bible Study. Her guests have included this guy:



Hannity is now Earhardt's boyfriend, according to Entertainment Weekly and other sources.

Will Murdoch fire all of these people? I don't think so.

Of course, it's unlikely that any of the other Fox hosts chatted about Jesus with Rupert's ex. Sherman reports:

Rupert Murdoch was perhaps unnerved by Carlson’s messianism because it echoed the end-times worldview of Murdoch’s ex-fiancée Ann Lesley Smith, the source said. In my May cover story, I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was “a messenger from God.” Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch’s Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. “Rupert just sat there and stared,” the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex’s favorite show.

But according to multiple reports, Fox CEO Suzanne Scott and favored son Lachlan Murdoch agreed to Carlson's termination. Are we supposed to believe they thought it was a good idea to fire their most prominent host just because his performative God-bothering upset the patriarch?

The Wall Street Journal's reporting is much more plausible:

Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Carlson, Fox News’s most-watched prime-time host, wasn’t impressed. He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message, the people said.... his dislike of this executive was deep and enduring....

The private messages in which Mr. Carlson showed disregard for management and colleagues were a major factor in [the firing] decision, according to other people familiar with the matter. Although many portions of the Dominion court documents are redacted, there is concern among Fox Corp. executives that if the redacted material were to become public, it would lead to further embarrassment for the network and parent company....

Mr. Carlson is a defendant in a lawsuit filed last month by Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Mr. Carlson and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. The suit, which also names Fox and other individuals, said, “Mr. Carlson’s derogatory comments towards women, and his disdain for those who dare to object to such misogyny, is well known on the set” of his show.

Fox wants to win that lawsuit. This is the most credible explanation for Carlson's firing.