Media

Caller pranks Fox News live coverage, praises Tucker Carlson on air

A person walks past the Fox News Headquarters in New York on April 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Someone called into Fox News pretending to be a student at Morgan State University, where a mass shooting injured several people on the Baltimore campus late Tuesday evening.

As Fox was covering breaking news of the shooting, anchor Trace Gallagher introduced a caller who claimed they were a student at Morgan State and had details on the shooting.

“What exactly happened, what transpired,” Gallagher asked the caller.

“Well first we were watching, we all get together every Tuesday night and we watch Tucker Carlson’s show on X. We used to watch him on Fox News, obviously he’s not there no more,” the voice on the phone said. “And still being the most credible guy in America in the media. We always get together to watch Tucker Carlson, and I think he’s probably doing better that he’s not with Fox.”

Gallagher began to cut the caller off, who continued, saying “the corporate media always controls what teleprompter are able to say.”

“Clearly that was not a student at Morgan State University,” Gallagher said as the caller was taken off the air.

Police said the five victims — four men and one woman, all between the ages of 18 and 22 — suffered non-life-threatening injuries as a result of the shooting, which prompted an hours-long lockdown of the historically Black college. No arrests had been made in the case as of Wednesday morning.

Fox in April fired Carlson, who has since launched a version of his once popular cable news program on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Carlson’s ouster enraged some prominent conservatives, including former President Trump, who has been publicly feuding with the network for months.

Carlson is still under contract with the network, which earlier this year sent him a cease-and-desist letter over his new online show, charging that he is in violation of his deal with the conservative media giant.