Fox News Staffers Privately Rail Against ‘White Supremacist Crap’ From Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham in Stunning New Report

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Staffers at Fox News railed against the network’s treatment of racism and Black Lives Matter protests in anonymous comments to the Daily Beast.

As the network grapples with a series of racial controversies — including the firing of Tucker Carlson’s top writer for racism — the Beast spoke to a dozen Fox News insiders who decried the network for its “role in demonizing and spreading fear about Black Americans in particular.” Employees specifically spoke out against harmful rhetoric around the Black Lives Matter movement and a graphic that aired showing the positive economic impact of the killings of notable Black people like George Floyd and Martin Luther King Jr. Fox has since apologized for the “insensitivity” of airing the graphic.

That graphic prompted Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to organize an open forum on June 9 between executives and Black staffers regarding the graphic and the ongoing protests against police brutality.

In a statement responding to the Beast story, the network told Mediaite, “FOX News Media is committed to providing an ongoing dialogue targeting issues of diversity and workplace inclusion, which is why we recently took the unprecedented action of providing an open forum among an intimate group of diverse employees to candidly discuss this critical issue. We have long been a leader in cable news for featuring a broad range of voices, and will continue those efforts to ensure all views are respected and celebrated both on and off air.”

The June forum, which lasted 90 minutes, was presented as an open forum to “enable an honest discussion about the tragic events of the last two weeks and the period of civil unrest we now find ourselves in as a nation,” according to an email written by Scott to staffers that was obtained by Mediaite.

“I want to apologize to each of you for the pain it caused and welcome your feedback so we can ensure this does not happen again,” Scott said in reference to the graphic aired on Special Report with Bret Baier. “I look forward to a candid discussion with all of you.”

Staffers on the call, reported by The Daily Beast, expressed frustration that white on-air talent were not involved in the forum. An employee said that everyone on the call was allowed to talk and there was “a lot of talking and a lot of emotions.” Charles Payne, a Black host on Fox Business, was particularly angry about the graphic and experiences he’s faced at the network. The Beast reported:

Fox Business Network host Charles Payne, who is Black, was particularly incensed, according to multiple people who attended the call. In fact, he had previously called Scott directly and, per a person familiar, was “ripshit” about the Baier graphic debacle and about racist remarks that Laura Ingraham had recently made on the air.

At one point on the June 9 call, sources told The Daily Beast, an irate Payne suggested he’d been the victim of racial discrimination, repeatedly passed over for opportunities given instead to white colleagues. Elsewhere, the staffers recalled, Payne, who has been at Fox since 2007, lamented the network’s tone when covering Black cultural stories, including the killing of California rapper and anti-gang activist Nipsey Hussle. How can he talk to his children about Fox News, the host wondered, when it portrays people like Hussle in a racist, stereotypical manner as a gangster?

A month after the call, Carlson’s lead writer Blake Neff resigned after CNN revealed his history of homophobic, sexist, and racist comments on internet message boards. Per the Beast, Some Fox employees were frustrated by Carlson’s non-apology on the controversy, when he said on-air that Neff’s comments “have no connection to the show” before scolding “ghouls beating their chests in triumph” over the resignation.

“How hard would it have been to say sorry?” one staffer said to the Beast. “That being said, I’m not surprised.”

According to the Beast, Fox Corporation chief Lachlan Murdoch personally signed off on Carlson’s apology, which was in stark contrast to the statement issued by Fox News condemning Neff.

The Fox News staffers who spoke to the Beast were incensed. “They created a cell—they created a white supremacist cell inside the top cable network in America, the one that directly influences the president… This is rank racism excused by Murdoch,” one said.

Another one added: “What [Fox executives] don’t understand is you had a white supremacist in a very senior position on [Carlson’s] show. That kind of thing doesn’t live in a garden that isn’t fertile.”

“It’s unbelievable,” another said, regarding Tucker Carlson’s freedom from punishment. “I know you’re supposed to stay silent, but this is intolerable.”

One Fox News staffer who spoke to the Beast dismissed the network’s attempts to downplay a recent monologue from the host warning that a Black Lives Matter “mob” will “come for you.” The network later said Carlson was referring broadly to Democrats.

“Bull. Shit. They have the script written that gives them an out,” an unnamed Fox staffer told the Beast. “But what the viewers hear is the white supremacist crap. And that crap goes straight to the White House.”

Some Black employees were also outraged about a June 29 segment in which Laura Ingraham brought on Dinesh D’Souza for an anti-Black Lives Matter monologue.

In the segment, Ingraham said, “We will remember those who desert their colors,” which prompted a HR investigation about how that phrase and the segment made the airwaves. The Beast reported that a Black HR representative, who also led the June call, said it was used as historical military reference, not a racist phrase.

Staffers expressed frustrated with the network’s lack of protocol regarding standards of racist speech, too. In 2012, a Fox contributor was removed from the air after calling Carlson a “bow-tying white boy,” but Ingraham and Carlson have not faced public consequences for their on-air rhetoric.