Fox News executives issued a memo on Saturday to condemn the “racist, misogynistic, and homophobic” online activity of host Tucker Carlson’s former top writer that were revealed in a CNN Business report.
In the internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace wrote that the network condemns the “horrendous and deeply offensive” online posts made by writer Blake Neff under a pseudonym.
“We want to make absolutely clear that Fox News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic, and homophobic behavior,” the memo read.
CNN Business first reported on Friday that Neff secretly posted racist, sexist, and homophobic messages for years under the pseudonym CharlesXII on the forum AutoAdmit. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider late Friday that Neff had resigned, but did not confirm the circumstances behind his departure nor did they comment on the CNN Business report.
“Neff’s abhorrent conduct on this forum was never divulged to the show or the network until Friday, at which point we accepted his swift resignation,” the memo read. “Make no mistake, actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of the workforce.”
The memo also said Carlson would be addressing the incident on his Monday night show.
Neff has worked for Fox News for nearly four years and joined Carlson’s show shortly after its inception in November 2016, according to an article in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.
When he was the top writer for Tucker Carlson Tonight, Neff told the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine that “anything he is reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me,” adding that he initially discussed news coverage with Carlson every day but has since “gotten used to what he likes and what he thinks about.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: Business Insider