In 2020, Rupert Murdoch, the owner of FOX News, hosted Governor Ron DeSantis at his ranch in Bel Air, California. During the meeting, Murdoch informed DeSantis that FOX News would support him if he decided to run for president in 2024. Since then, FOX Corp fired their top host Tucker Carlson, who was popular among the Trump-MAGA supporters. The channel has also implemented a soft ban on President Trump. As a result, FOX News has seen a decline in its viewership- losing almost half of its audience since Carlson’s termination. This information was reported by Knewz. For the record, Knewz was owned by Murdoch’s NewsCorp until 2021.

According to Vanity Fair, the conservative news mogul invited the Florida Governor to his Vineyard in Bel Air, California for dinner in 2020 and assured him that Fox would support his potential presidential run in 2024.

Earlier this year, signs of this sentiment became more apparent as Fox implemented a soft ban on Trump and began featuring DeSantis more frequently.

Additionally, during this time, the Dominion lawsuit loomed over the news corporation, prompting it to distance itself from the election controversy and thus steer clear of Trump.

Murdoch even expressed regret, stating that he would have preferred his anchors to be more assertive in denouncing Trump’s election conspiracies that defined his campaigns. He was also quoted saying, “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” per the Independent.

A lot of this is starting to make much more sense. I’m not saying that it’s right, but I’m saying that it makes sense. It looks like Fox News is looking to push Ron DeSantis as much as they can now that he’s officially announced that he’s running for president, and they will certainly be looking to diminish anything related to President Trump and probably anyone else who runs against DeSantis. This would include Tucker Carlson as well, which could be one of the reasons why they got rid of him when they did.