Tucker Carlson’s Fox News Shows in Hungary Were Reportedly ‘Unapproved’ by the Network and Contributed to His Firing

When Tucker Carlson filmed a week of Fox News shows in Budapest touting the record of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, he did so without the permission of Fox executives, according to Brian Stelter.

In its Confider newsletter published on Monday night, the Daily Beast ran a couple of nuggets from the former CNN host’s upcoming book about Fox News, Network of Lies.

In August 2021, Carlson traveled to the Hungarian capital where he praised Orbán’s ultranationalism, culminating in an interview with the prime minister in which the then-Fox News host whitewashed the leader’s record.

Relaying an exclusive excerpt from the book, Confider reported that Carlson “deliberately usurped the authority of his Fox News bosses and further contributed to his eventual exit.”

Carlson was fired in April of this year, shortly after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. Several Fox hosts – including Carlson – suggested or outright claimed Dominion helped rig the 2020 presidential election.

“A tug-of-war was underway between people of good faith and all parties who wanted to protect American democracy, and those on the other side of the rope who tugged in an authoritarian direction,” Stelter wrote. “Carlson’s unapproved trip to Hungary in 2021 was surely in the latter category. Carlson whipped his show up into an infomercial for Viktor Orbán’s increasingly autocratic, patriarchal nation.”

Stelter further said Carlson was planning to return to Hungary for CPAC’s conference there in 2022, “but someone at Fox, I was told, reined him in, and he merely sent a videotaped message.”

In response, Stelter said, “Orbán praised Carlson and said ‘programs like his should be broadcasted day and night. Or as you say 24/7.’”