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Advertisers drop Tucker Carlson show slots after Black Lives Matter comments

'Bye-bye Tucker Carlson! BlackLivesMatter'

Oliver O'Connell
New York
Thursday 11 June 2020 22:45 BST
Comments
Fox News' Tucker Carlson responds to Sesame Street take on BLM: 'America is a bad place. And it's your fault.'.mp4

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Advertisers are once again pulling their ads from Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show after his comments on the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tucker Carlson Tonight is one of the most watched shows on cable news, but in just two days T-Mobile, ABC/Disney, PapaJohn’s and Vari have pulled their ads.

On Monday, Mr Carlson said: “This may be a lot of things, this moment we’re living through, but it is definitely not about black lives. Remember that when they come for you — and at this rate, they will.”

His comments were immediately condemned and he was called a “dangerous racist” who is “always doing the most to fill old white people with unnecessary, racist fear.”

A Twitter user messaged advertiser T-Mobile’s CEO Mike Sievert asking if Mr Carlson's is the type of message the company supports.

He bluntly responded: “It definitely is not. Bye-bye Tucker Carlson! BlackLivesMatter”.

Mr Sievert took time to respond to a number of tweets on the subject.

Deadline reports that ads for ABC from parent company Disney were never supposed to run during Mr Carlson’s show.

“The ABC advertisements were placed on the show without our knowledge by third party media buyers who were unaware that we do not advertise on the show, and they have now been notified not to place any further ads,” an ABC spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Fox News said that Mr Tucker was referring to Democratic leaders not protestors when he made the comments on his show.

Public outrage has grown through the week as each night he has continued his inflammatory rhetoric, lashing out at Sesame Street, Barack Obama, and LeBron James, and questioning why anyone is “required to be upset” over Mr Floyd’s death.

In 2018 the show was boycotted by advertisers after Mr Carlson said that immigrants made the nation “poorer and dirtier’, and again in 2019 after he said that white supremacy was a hoax.

According to Mediamatters the show has never fully recovered advertising revenue after the 2018 incident.

A Fox News spokesperson said that all national dollars and ads were moved to other programs.

Mr Carlson recently sold his stake in conservative digital outlet The Daily Caller to focus on his Fox News show

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