Tucker Carlson Made My Life ‘A Living Hell,’ Says Ex-Producer

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tucker-carlson-02-RS-1800 - Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
tucker-carlson-02-RS-1800 - Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Former Tucker Carlson producer Abby Grossberg had a lot to say about her ex-boss, detailing her experience with the noxious behind-the-scenes culture of Tucker Carlson Tonight in an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace on Tuesday.

Grossberg filed two explosive lawsuits against Fox News in March. She alleges that the network coerced her into changing her deposition to lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems and that she was the victim of a pervasive culture of misogyny and workplace discrimination while working as a producer for host Maria Bartiromo, and now-former host Tucker Carlson. Through the lawsuits, Grossberg has produced several recordings made during her time at Fox that expose how transparently members of Trump’s circle lied about election fraud claims. In the interview, she revealed that she is in possession of a total of 90 recordings made during her time at the network.

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Fox News has called Grossberg’s allegations about her Dominion testimony “baseless” and stated that they are prepared to “vigorously defend Fox against all of her legal claims which have no merit.”

On MSNBC, Grossberg elaborated on her claims that Carlson had created a hostile work environment rampant with sexist discrimination behind the scenes of his show. Carlson was ousted from Fox News in a shocking move by the network on Monday, with no explanation given as to the cause of his sudden departure.

“Tucker and his executive producer Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell. So there is a feeling of justice, but it’s only partial,” Grossberg said in her discussion of Carlson’s departure from Fox.

Despite her sense of partial vindication, Grossberg remains just as mystified as the public as to the network’s reason for parting ways with their biggest star. “I think [the lawsuits have] something to do with it,” Grossberg said, adding that she can’t “know for sure though.”

What Grossberg does know, however, is her experience working behind the scenes of the most toxic show in the history of cable news. She described the frat-style culture of Tucker Carlson Tonight, whose offices at Fox’s studios were littered with photos of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in swimsuits.

The former producer said she was punished and demoted for speaking out against the “bro-fest” culture of Carlson’s team. “Whenever I said something like that, it put a target on my back and gradually I was shut out of meetings, I was mocked, I was eventually demoted. That’s how it played out for me. It got worse and worse and worse every time I spoke out.”

During discovery in Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson’s use of slurs and vulgarities when describing women came up several times. The host repeatedly called Trump lawyer Sidney Powell a “cunt” in private communications and meetings. Carlson was said to invoke the word liberally when speaking about women he disliked.

Grossberg was directly questioned by Dominion’s lawyers regarding Carlson’s comments about Powell. “My thought process was ‘you’re going to work for this man soon. You want to stay at this company, you want a career,’” Grossberg said. “So it was easy just to say, ‘No, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable.’”

When lawyers pressed her about how she would feel if Carlson used similar language in her presence, Grossberg admits that she deflected. “That really stuck with me when bad stuff started happening, that he had said [those things] and I said it was OK.”

Grossberg explained that the culture at Tucker Carlson Tonight led her to the realization that the content they were broadcasting was often reverse-engineered to find substance for whatever claims the host was looking to air.

“Tucker was very set on finding an FBI person who was implanted in the crowd [on Jan. 6] and spinning this conspiracy that they were ultimately the ones responsible for the Capitol attack,” she said. Grossberg explained that despite rebukes from potential sources, including an attorney for the member of the Proud Boys who told her there was “no conspiracy” and to “get away from this stuff,” she was told to “find somebody else” by members of Carlson’s team.

Despite Carlson being gone from the network, and Fox having settled the Dominion lawsuit for an astronomical sum, their legal troubles are far from over. The network and Carlson are still facing the legal ramifications stemming from the lies they told about the 2020 election, and Grossberg’s suits threaten to expose even more of the shameful inner workings of Fox.

When asked if her former employer had contacted her regarding Carlson’s firing, Grossberg smiled. “No one is coming near me,” she said. “They could be worried I have tapes.”

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