There has been no shortage of stories in recent weeks regarding turmoil at Fox News Channel — the Dominion settlement, other ongoing litigation, Tucker Carlson’s abrupt dismissal and the concomitant ratings nosedive, swirling rumors regarding a line-up shake-up.

Now, Rolling Stone is reporting that the floundering network is dispensing with its investigative unit in an effort to trim costs — with more layoffs potentially looming.

“The rank and file journalists are getting let go. Meanwhile, upper management are sitting pretty while they are the execs responsible for the Dominion debacle,” one Fox employee tells Rolling Stone, which has confirmed the unit has been axed. “We are the sacrificial lambs.”

“Yes, [layoffs] have happened,” another staffer confirms. “And continue to happen.”

The report highlights long-rumored tensions between the opinion hosts and the news division.

“The outrage is that Suzanne Scott and Maria Bartiromo keep their jobs,” the employee says, referring to the network CEO and one of its opinion hosts named in the lawsuit, respectively. “Meanwhile the journalists get let go. We are in shock.”

“I think producers, management, et cetera [are being laid-off],” adds a former Fox talent. “They are trying to get money off the books before June 30. They have to save money because of the [Dominion] lawsuit.”

That characterization of the situation is disputed, however, by another source who spoke to the magazine.

A Fox source with knowledge of the situation rejected any connection between the layoffs and the Dominion settlement. The source said some of the people within the investigative unit had been reassigned.

Rolling Stone, for its part, appears to be reveling in the discord, gleefully noting:

It turns out that the “real journalists” aren’t untouchable, either, especially now that the network, which barely even pretends to care about factual accuracy, is feeling it financially. The pain might not be letting up anytime soon. Fox is also facing a lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting systems company that is alleging defamation for pushing lies about the 2020 election. The company has said it wants the network to pay out even more than the three-quarters of a billion dollars it forked over to Dominion.

While several of the sources cited in that article expressed delight at Tucker Carlson’s departure, and while some reporting now indicates his being taken off the air may, in fact, have been a negotiated part of the settlement with Dominion, Tucker may nevertheless be having the last laugh.

As RedState’s Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar noted, Tucker Carlson recently posted tweeted a Twitter video hinting at a return of his show in the not-too-distant future, albeit in a notably different medium:

Obviously, Tucker will want his show and any other assets he’s developing to be available on sites other than Twitter since there are many people from his existing audience who don’t have a Twitter account and won’t be enticed to create one even to see his show. But this is a great start and a positive development for those who want less propaganda in their news, and a very bad development for Fox News.

We may just be witnessing a major media seachange — secure the lifevests and grab the popcorn.