Tucker Carlson and bret baier frantic strategy to recover foxnews viewers turned off by the correct call from the network Joe Biden2020 election victory in Arizona, according to text messages cited by The Daily Beast Thursday.
“We need to do something to reassure our core audience,” primetime host Carlson wrote to newscaster Baier at the time. “They are our entire business model.”
Carlson, who was fired last week, expressed concern about another foxnews projection that could further alienate viewers after the election.
“We have been pushing for answers,” Baier responded, according to the Beast. “I have put pressure on them to slow down. And I think they’ll walk slow Nevada. Votes don’t come in until tomorrow.
Carlson said he would exert his influence to push back projections of the election results. “Please let me know if they don’t appear to be complying,” Carlson wrote. “We could really fuck up a lot of what we’ve built.”
The exchange of texts taken from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the network, now settled, seemed to once again highlight the channel’s complacency with its audience of donald trump supporters The network’s promotion of Trump’s false claims about rigged voting machines resulted in a $787.5 million payment by Fox to settle the lawsuit.
When Carlson told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott that the network was getting “battered” by viewers in Arizona, she urged transparency and letting “the data people defend their decision.”
But Carlson went ahead with his dialogue with Baier, the texts revealed.
Fox News said in a statement to the Beast that it “held up on Arizona’s call despite intense scrutiny.”