CNN’s Anderson Cooper Asks Ex-Fox Host If ‘There Will Be Any Repercussions’ For Fox News Hosts After Bombshell Settlement
CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked ex-Fox News host Gretchen Carlson if “there will be any repercussions” for Fox News hosts after the blockbuster Dominion settlement.
In a stunning turn of events Tuesday afternoon, Fox News agreed to a settlement that included a $787.5 million payout in the defamation suit that was just about to play out in a weeks-long trial after volumes of damaging revelations were publicized pretrial. The settlement also included a tepid and conspicuously non-apologetic “acknowledgment” of “the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, Cooper interviewed Carlson, who settled a sexual harassment suit with Fox News for $20 million and received an apology — but is also bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
Cooper asked Carlson if she thinks there will be consequences for hosts, while noting “there’s not going to be a repercussion for Sean Hannity or for Tucker Carlson“:
COOPER: Do you think there will be any repercussions for — I mean, look, there’s not going to be a repercussion for Sean Hannity or for Tucker Carlson. They have very big ratings. FOX News is going to be behind them. But for, you know, the more low-hanging fruit of Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo?
CARLSON: Well, I think Lou Dobbs already met his fate. He was let go —
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I’m not a viewer. So you’re right. Yes, I should —
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: Well, I’m not either anymore.
COOPER: Yes, I should have realized that.
CARLSON: But, yes, I have — I have absolutely no idea. I mean, one might expect it. But then why did they allow it to go this far to begin with?
COOPER: Did the — does — I mean, I don’t want to get you into the middle of something, but the — Maria Bartiromo, I mean, her behavior during all of this, what she said on air, her hosting of Sidney Powell is really — I mean, just journalistically, it’s shameful. Did that surprise you?
I mean, she — I don’t know her personally, I don’t — I was on “Jeopardy!” with her once and —
CARLSON: Oh my gosh.
COOPER: — and she did not do well, but I — has she — was she always like that?
CARLSON: Not that I recall, but I cannot comment on the people that I worked with, unfortunately, because of my nondisclosure agreement.
But as far as being surprised about it — you know, look, I think that some of the FOX hosts are a microcosm of what we’re seeing in the macrocosm of viewers, which is we watch news now in silos, and we only watch what we want to hear. And quite honestly, I believe that that can rub off on the host as well.
COOPER: Do you foresee any changes —
CARLSON: No.
COOPER: — that this will — make in anybody, for anybody?
CARLSON: I don’t think that this will change the way FOX does news. And therefore, I don’t think it will change the way viewers view them.
I know that what I’ve done in my life in the last six and a half years that my case against FOX was incredibly meaningful and I’ve taken full advantage of that to make my life passion meaningful now in the work that I’m doing to make workplaces safer.
And so, that’s what I try to focus on now is the positive and waking up every day and knowing that I’m passing bipartisan legislation, not once but twice last year. anyway.
Watch above via CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.
