Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, on his radio show, questioned his colleague Bret Baier on whether he has an issue with Tucker Carlson’s controversial series “Patriot Purge.”
The question from Kilmeade followed the resignations of two Fox News contributors, Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, who have long been regular contributors to Baier’s show Special Report. They both said Carlson’s Patriot Purge series about Jan. 6 was the last straw. A subsequent report said that Baier and Chris Wallace had objected to Fox News executives about the conspiracy-laden series from the prime time host.
NPR’s David Folkenflik reported the terrific scoop:
Veteran figures on Fox’s news side, including political anchors Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, shared their objections with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news, Jay Wallace. Those objections rose to Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of the network’s parent company, Fox Corporation. Through a senior spokeswoman, Scott and Wallace declined comment. Murdoch did not return a request for comment through a spokesman.
Kudos to Kilmeade, who invited Baier on to his radio show Monday and asked, “what’s going on with Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg?”
Baier commented on his friends Hayes and Goldberg and their decision to depart Fox News in protest.
“I think it was a tough choice but one that they made on principle,” he offered before adding, “you know, and I’m going to
Kilmeade noted that he had watched the Fox Nation series “Patriot Purge”, which he found to offer an “interesting perspective” about January 6th that he hadn’t seen before. “I didn’t get hurt by it. I didn’t get damaged by it. Were you bothered by it? Because that’s the reporting.”
A pregnant silence followed that very pointed question that pushed Baier to address an alliance to Hayes and Goldberg, or the host of the show at 8 pm, Tucker Carlson.
“There’s a…Brian, I don’t want to go down this road,” Baier answered, perhaps with the slightest sense of annoyance towards Kilmeade.
“You know, I mean, there were concerns about it definitely,” he continued, adding, “I think that the news division did what we do we do when we covered the story.”
“I want to do all of that internally,” Baier explained before concluding, “Steve and Jonah made the decision, and it’s their decision.”
Read Hayes and Goldberg’s statement here.
Listen above via 77WABC Radio.