New York: A longtime producer for Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News after he was deemed responsible for the on-air headline that referred to President Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator” because of the indictment of former president Donald Trump.
The producer, Alex McCaskill, confirmed his exit in an Instagram post. Fox News did not comment on Friday.
The Fox News Channel chyron read, “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”Credit: AP
McCaskill had remained at Fox after Carlson, the network’s most popular personality, was fired on April 24.
The reason for Carlson’s sudden ouster, less than a week after Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $US787 million ($1.17 billion) to end a defamation case, has never been publicly explained.
It was during the last minutes of Carlson’s former time slot on Tuesday when the message appeared under separate onscreen boxes that showed Biden and Trump talking. It read: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”
Carlson, in a Twitter monologue posted on Thursday, said “the women who run the network panicked” about the post and scolded the person responsible. Carlson didn’t name the producer, but said he was “considered one of the most capable persons in the building”.
The producer offered to resign with two weeks’ notice, but was told to clean out his desk and leave immediately, he said.
Fox, in a statement on Wednesday, said the chyron had been taken down and the issue “addressed”, without further explanation.