2 prominent conservatives quit Fox News over Tucker Carlson's Jan. 6 'incoherent conspiracy-mongering'
Longtime conservative commentators Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes made a public break with Fox News on Sunday night, announcing their resignations as paid Fox News contributors and citing Tucker Carlson's online special Patriot Purge as the final straw. Hayes and Goldberg, top editors at The Weekly Standard and National Review, founded The Dispatch in 2019, largely in response to what they saw as the conservative media's sycophantic capitulation to former President Donald Trump and his "alternative facts."
When they joined Fox News in 2009, and for most of the next decade, "we were proud to be associated with the network" and believed it was necessary, Hayes and Goldberg explained at The Dispatch. But the decision to air and promote Carlson's dangerous "collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering" showed them that, despite assurances otherwise, Fox News is not clawing back any of its pre-Trump independence.
Patriot Purge was "a sign that people have made peace with this direction of things, and there is no plan, at least, that anyone made me aware of for a course correction" or "righting the ship," Goldberg told The New York Times' Ben Smith. "The Patriot Purge thing meant: Okay, we hit the iceberg now, and I can't do the rationalizations anymore."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Ten years ago it would have been utterly unfathomable" to see Goldberg and Hayes "leave Fox News in protest of the network's coverage," Politico's Sam Stein observed. "But here we are." Their resignations are "simply part of the new right's mopping up operation in the corners of conservative institutions that still house pockets of resistance" to Trump, Smith writes. While Hayes and Goldberg have "both appeared occasionally on the evening show Special Report and on Fox News Sunday," it's "been years since they were welcome on Fox's prime time."
Special Report anchor Bret Baier and Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace also "shared their objections" to Patriot Purge "with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news, Jay Wallace," NPR's David Folkenflik reports. "Those objections rose to Lachlan Murdoch," CEO of Fox's parent company. Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch recently lamented to shareholders that Trump's fixation with the past is stunting Fox's future.
Goldberg told NPR it was hard quitting his prestigious and "well-compensated" Fox News gig. "We don't regret the decision," he said. "But we found it regrettable that we had to make the decision." Carlson told Smith the departure of Hayes and Goldberg is "great news" and "our viewers will be grateful."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
What's next for electric vehicles under Trump?
Today's Big Question And what does that mean for Tesla's Elon Musk?
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
These 7 touring theater productions are ready to carry you through the holidays and into the new year
The Week Recommends Your favorite movie-turned-musical might be coming to a city near you
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right (luckily)
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Ukraine fires ATACMS, Russia ups hybrid war
Speed Read Ukraine shot U.S.-provided long-range missiles and Russia threatened retaliation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New York DA floats 4-year Trump sentencing freeze
Speed Read President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing is on hold, and his lawyers are pushing to dismiss the case while he's in office
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Wyoming judge strikes down abortion, pill bans
Speed Read The judge said the laws — one of which was a first-in-the-nation prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy — violated the state's constitution
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US sanctions Israeli West Bank settler group
Speed Read The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Amana, Israel's largest settlement development organization
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Gaetz ethics report in limbo as sex allegations emerge
Speed Read A lawyer representing two women alleges that Matt Gaetz paid them for sex, and one witnessed him having sex with minor
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Biden allows Ukraine to hit deep in Russia
Speed Read The U.S. gave Ukraine the green light to use ATACMS missiles supplied by Washington, a decision influenced by Russia's escalation of the war with North Korean troops
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Sri Lanka's new Marxist leader wins huge majority
Speed Read The left-leaning coalition of newly elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won 159 of the legislature's 225 seats
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Biden arrives in Peru for final summits
Speed Read President Joe Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, visit the Amazon rainforest and attend two major international summits
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published