The New York Times claimed Tuesday night that it knows the exact text that popular host Tucker Carlson sent that led to his being fired from Fox News and his highly-rated program, “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” The outlet is alleging that a missive sent to a producer was inflammatory and “set off a panic at the highest levels of Fox on the eve of its billion-dollar defamation trial” against Dominion Voting Systems.

Fox settled the suit in an 11th-hour deal for $787.5 million rather than risk a trial and the exposure of more damaging information during the discovery process.

“The discovery of the message contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Mr. Carlson’s firing,” the Times writes.

Here is the message the newspaper says they obtained [I put in the line breaks for clarity]:

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight.

Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.

Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it.

I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?

It should be noted that the contents of the message are apparently subject to a court order and whoever disclosed it to the Times may have violated that court order in doing so.

If the Times is to be believed, it was the phrase, “It’s not how white men fight” that apparently sent Fox brass into panic mode. They had already known about other texts he had sent saying, “I hate him [Trump] passionately” and calling a senior Fox News executive the C-word. The texts came out during the discovery phase of Dominion’s lawsuit, which alleged that Fox outlets aired claims that the company’s voting machines were rigged and helped Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election.

But the discovery of the new text was different in their minds:

The text alarmed the Fox board, which saw the message a day before Fox was set to defend itself against Dominion Voting Systems before a jury. The board grew concerned that the message could become public at trial when Mr. Carlson was on the stand, creating a sensational and damaging moment that would raise broader questions about the company.

Whether or not the text would ultimately have been admissible at trial is unclear. Still, they hired an outside law firm to look into the matter, and not long after, Tucker was gone.

I found his text to be an interesting example of soul-searching and understanding that we all have to appeal to our better natures. He recognized that he was having inappropriate feelings about the assault on an Antifa member, and he realized that’s not who he wanted to be.

But he had already hit the third rail of commentary—race. The New York Times went on a cherry-picking festival in their article attempting to paint Carlson as a white supremacist.

Carlson’s text doesn’t spew hate, and doesn’t denigrate any racial group—but we know that his detractors will do everything in their power to portray it in the worst possible light. Fox News, evidently, wasn’t willing to defend him on this one.

If the Times is right—and that’s always open to question since they’re incredibly biased and often get things like the Russia collusion narrative wrong—it’s too bad that one text that was supposed to be private was the final nail in the coffin for a six-year run of riveting television.

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