(HuffPost) - Tucker Carlson may have been fired from Fox News after going too hard on the “prayer talk,” according to a new report in Vanity Fair.
A source briefed on Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch’s decision-making said Carlson was ousted over remarks he made during a speech Friday night at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala in Maryland, according to Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman.
The source said Carlson’s speech was laced with religious overtones that were too extreme even for Murdoch. During the address, Carlson called abortion “child sacrifice,” cast American politics as a battle between “good and evil” and suggested the solution was taking “10 minutes a day to say a prayer about it.”
The source told Vanity Fair, “that stuff freaks Rupert out.”
“He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” the source said.
Fox News unceremoniously dumped Carlson on Monday. He found out 10 minutes before the right-wing network announced the news, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox Corp., and Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News Media, made the decision to fire the top-rated host on Friday night, according to The New York Times.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Murdoch had called off his engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, a former dental hygienist who would have been his fifth wife. They were engaged for less than three weeks.
Sherman reported at the time that Murdoch had called it quits because of Smith’s outspoken evangelical views and her thoughts on Carlson, who she reportedly believed was a “messenger from God.”
By Josephine Harvey
