(LifeSiteNews) — Massively popular conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s abrupt April ouster was part of the news organization’s historic settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, a Fox News staffer told an undercover reporter with James O’Keefe’s new media venture in a report published May 15.
In interviews dated May 9 and May 12, Sean Langille, producer of “Fox News at Night,” spoke about the corporation’s $787.5 million settlement with voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems and Fox’s alleged dissatisfaction with Carlson’s commentary surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot. He also suggested that Fox’s content is constrained by Big Pharma and Big Tech advertisers.
“OMG News has obtained incendiary footage of a Fox News producer talking about Tucker Carlson’s departure, the Dominion settlement, and the influence that advertisers and pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer have over the embattled network,” O’Keefe said in the video report. Formerly of Project Veritas, which he founded in 2011, the investigative journalist this year launched a new media outfit known as the O’Keefe Media Group.
“They say it wasn’t part of it, but we’re learning that Tucker getting fired was part of … the [Dominion] settlement,” Langille told the undercover reporter in the video, stating that Carlson didn’t leave voluntarily but was “ousted.”
Carlson biographer Chadwick Moore has also stated that Carlson’s firing was related to the Dominion settlement.
Carlson’s sudden exit from Fox News on April 24 came just days after Fox News reached its historic settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on April 18 over the conservative media outlet’s coverage of allegations pertaining to vote fraud in the 2020 election. However, Carlson actually pushed back on sweeping voting machine tampering claims made by Trump attorney Sydney Powell. Dominion and Fox have both denied allegations that they agreed that Carlson be booted from the network as part of the settlement.
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In the undercover footage, Langille also suggested some “shady” behind-the-scenes connections at play with regard to Dominion.
He said that Michael La Rosa, a former White House press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden and a Special Assistant to President Joe Biden, later served as the managing director handling strategic communications for stakeholder solutions firm Penta Group, which represented Dominion in its lawsuit against Fox. La Rosa lists Penta Group on his LinkedIn profile. However, his company bio on the firm’s website appears to have been deleted.
“You look at those little connect[ion]s and you’re like, someone who worked for the Biden White House was literally crafting the message for Dominion,” he said. “That’s a whole story in and of itself.”
But Dominion wasn’t the only concern for Fox with regard to Carlson, according to Langille.
The producer also suggested that Carlson expressed views that were distasteful to high-profile advertisers and ran afoul of Fox owner Rupert Murdoch.
“He brought up things that cost a lot of money,” Langille said of Carlson. “That was part of it. He was going to go after — this whole thing about January 6 was, it was an inside job. He went after this guy Ray Epps. He said he was an FBI agent on the inside and basically encouraged it.”
“He was going to go on the air and refute what that guy [Ray Epps] said on 60 Minutes. And the Murdochs were like, not too happy about it,” Langille said.
Conservative commentators including Carlson, and lawmakers like Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, have raised concerns about the identity and role of Epps, a January 6 protester who was caught on video urging people to enter the U.S. Capitol while Trump supporters shouted him down by chanting: “fed, fed, fed.”
Unlike many other January 6 protesters, Epps has not been arrested or charged with a crime. Instead, even while other protesters have been vilified as “insurrectionists” and “domestic terrorists,” Epps has been defended by The New York Times and treated to a sympathetic interview with 60 Minutes.
In his comments to the undercover reporter, Langille also spoke about predictions that Fox News would lose money by cutting ties with Carlson, something he suggested isn’t borne out by the data.
“The other thing with Tucker that is interesting is everyone’s afraid we are losing so many viewers and money,” he said. “I’m like, well actually, there are a bunch of advertisers that said, ‘we’re not going to advertise that 8 o’clock hour.’ So now that he’s gone, they’re starting to come back.”
While the popular host regularly brought in 3.5 million viewers per night, high-profile advertisers reportedly stayed clear of Carlson’s time slot due to his conservative opinions that were frequently farther to the right than those expressed by other Fox personalities.
Langille also said Fox’s content is constrained by Big Pharma and Big Tech advertisers, including COVID-jab producer Pfizer.
“We would do all the stuff about COVID vaccines, like, and we’re getting money from Pfizer,” Langille said. “Big Pharma, Big Tech.” Left-wing media outlets have previously attacked Fox for running ads from COVID-jab producing pharmaceutical companies while raising doubts about the shots in its coverage.
Langille also responded in the affirmative when the undercover reporter suggested that media outlets including Fox, MSNBC, and CNN are all essentially owned by multibillion dollar shareholders like Blackrock and Vanguard.
“It’s across the board kind of like that, where you don’t want to piss off advertisers,” he said.
LifeSite reached out to Fox News with questions regarding Langille’s claims about Fox’s advertising partnership with Pfizer, as well as his other remarks about the news organization. Fox did not immediately respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.