Fox News Runs to MSNBC Contributors at NYT for Tucker Carlson Hit Job

The latest leaks from Fox News about Tucker Carlson — which have appeared to be set up by Fox Corporation’s board — were first obtained and written about by three New York Times reporters, two of which are MSNBC contributors.

The story from the New York Times, which has garnered a lot of attention and a broad spectrum of outrage, was published Tuesday night by three reporters: Jeremy W. Peters, Michael S. Schmidt, and Jim Rutenberg. 

Peters identifies himself as an MSNBC contributor on his byline homepage, and Schmidt is married to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace and frequently makes appearances on shows as a “contributor.” On the other hand, Rutenberg appears to just be a “writer at large” for the Times.

The story itself reported on a text message sent between Carlson and his producer that allegedly “set off a panic at the highest levels of Fox” one day before the Dominion trial began and ultimately appeared to set up Carlson’s ouster, two sources told the Times.

It was reported that the text messages only “came to the attention” of Fox’s board of directors last month, despite Carlson being asked about them during his deposition. But the day after the Fox board became aware of the messages, they told Fox executives an outside firm would be brought in to investigate Carlson.

Carlson was eventually ousted shortly after the Dominion lawsuit was settled. A source within Fox News told Breitbart News last month that there was an important meeting involving the Murdochs and potentially former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan — all of whom sit on the board — about the settlement, which eventually led to Carlson’s ouster.

“After the Dominion settlement, there was clearly a meeting at the network—I don’t know if it was a board meeting or just the Murdochs, but someone made a decision—and said these two are the biggest threats to the network and they don’t listen to anyone,” the source told Breitbart News about Carlson and Dan Bongino, who has also parted ways with Fox News. The source also alluded that the ousters of the two personalities “are so obviously tied together that anyone can see it clearly.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.