In an editorial published Sunday evening in the online magazine The Dispatch, Fox News commentators Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes announced they would be leaving the network. The two described the network as a place where “the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible.”
“We remain grateful for the opportunities we’ve had at Fox and we continue to admire many of the hard-working journalists who work there,” the two wrote in the editorial. “This is our last recourse. We do not regret our decision, even if we find it regrettably necessary.”
While Hayes and Goldberg say they were “tested… many times over the past few years” while working at Fox News, the catalyst for their resignations was Tucker Carlson’s three-part series on the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. The two described the series, titled “Patriot Purge”, as “a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions.”
“Its message is clear: The U.S. government is targeting patriotic Americans in the same manner —and with the same tools—that it used to target al Qaeda,” the two wrote. “This is not happening. And we think it’s dangerous to pretend it is.”
According to an article from the New York Times, Goldberg texted Hayes “I’m tempted just to quit Fox [News] over this” the night Patriot Purge was released. “I’m game,” Hayes reportedly replied. “Totally outrageous. It will lead to violence. Not sure how we can stay.”
As of Monday morning, Carlson was relatively quiet on Twitter regarding the resignations. He did tweet out a new poster for his series, describing it as “the documentary series that drove Jonah Goldberg to an impotent rage”.
In recent years, Carlson has proven how successful a hardline appeal to Trumpism can be, not just among Fox News viewers, but television watchers as a whole. In October, Carlson had the second most-watched show on cable news. According to Goldberg and Hayes, other on-air personalities on Fox News have taken notice.
“Over the past five years, some of Fox’s top opinion hosts amplified the false claims and bizarre narratives of Donald Trump or offered up their own in his service,” the two wrote. “In this sense, the release of Patriot Purge wasn’t an isolated incident, it was merely the most egregious example of a longstanding trend.”
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