Fox News host Greg Gutfeld is getting a lot of praise on social media after he defended fired former colleague Tucker Carlson while getting in a dig at the network, which prompted gasps from the live studio audience.
On Friday’s episode of “Gutfeld,” the most popular late-night comedy show on television, Gutfeld was discussing the viral clip of X/Twitter owner Elon Musk telling advertisers attempting to “blackmail” him with ad money, “Go f—k yourself.”
“Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f—k yourself. Go. F—k. Yourself. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise,” Musk said during a recent New York Times summit, specifically calling out Disney CEO Bob Iger.
.@elonmusk to corporations pulling ads from X:
"Don't advertise. If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is." pic.twitter.com/GuhIHWjei9
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 29, 2023
Gutfeld praised Musk’s refusal to bend the knee to the “censorship industrial complex” of major businesses trying to cancel X, as well as for his ardent support of free speech. He also celebrated Musk’s decision to tell off “cowardly advertisers” who cave to pressure from the far-left.”
“The fact is, Musk may be the last man standing between real freedom of speech and the suffocating block of this censorship industrial complex, which is made up of government, media, and tech forces,” the Fox News host said.
“He realizes that advertisers have no spine and can be easily cowed by special interest groups in cahoots with political allies,” Gutfeld added.
While it appeared that he was already suggesting that Fox News was part of this “censorship industrial complex,” Gutfeld then made those suggestions clear with his next statement, calling out Fox News by stating, “If you don’t believe me, I have two words for you: Tucker Carlson.”
His comment likely refers to Carlson’s ouster from the network, which came amid advertiser boycotts of his hit primetime show due to Carlson’s staunch conservative views and his controversial takes, as well as lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems over his allegations about the 2020 election.
Gutfeld’s remarks about Carlson prompted uneasy gasps from the live audience, as the studio went silent — with Gutfeld’s own co-hosts appearing speechless.
The Fox News host did not appear to regret his controversial comments, though he did seem surprised by the reaction, saying, “Wow.”
After the clip went viral, Musk shared it in a post on X with a simple caption, which read: “Correct.”
The clip shared by Musk was posted by commentator Ian Miles Cheong, who also praised the Fox News host for his honesty.
“Greg Gutfeld stands up for Elon Musk and says the quiet part out loud: Tucker Carlson was canceled from Fox by special interest groups tied to political interests,” Cheong wrote in the caption.
Correct https://t.co/KLaXWYFDy3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2023
