A producer for Fox News who had previously worked on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Alex McCaskill, has exited the network after he was considered responsible for Tuesday’s on-air headline that referred to President Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator.”
In its entirety, the headline read: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” The chyron was featured during a broadcast covering the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
According to the Associated Press, Fox issued a statement the following morning saying that the chyron had been taken down and “addressed.” McCaskill then sent in his letter of resignation but was met with a request for an immediate departure, the AP reported.
Fox News did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona reported that the producer announced his departure in an Instagram post on Friday. “Today was my last day at Fox. It’s been a wild 10 years and it was the best place I’ve ever worked because of the great people I met. But the time has come. I asked them to let me go, and they finally did. To all my friends there: I will miss you forever,” wrote McCaskill in the post, a screenshot of which was posted to Twitter by Baragona.
Prior to McCaskill’s announcement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the headline on Wednesday and replied, “There are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this.” Jean-Pierre continued, “That was wrong — about what we saw last night — but I don’t think I’m going to get into it.”
Carlson, who abruptly exited Fox News in April, also released a video statement about the situation via Twitter on Thursday. “First they scolded the producer who put the banner on the screen,” Carlson said. “Less than 24 hours after that, he resigned. He had been at Fox for more than a decade. He was considered one of the most capable people in the building. He offered to stay for the customary two weeks, but Fox told him to clear out his desk and leave immediately.”
