Fox News' Greg Gutfeld mounts bold defense of Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson

Never one to back away from a controversial take, Fox News' Greg Gutfeld shocked viewers on Friday when, during a discussion of Elon Musk's recent appearance at the New York Times DealBook summit, he appeared to accuse his own network of wrongfully censoring former primetime host Tucker Carlson, as the Post Millennial reports.

The incident occurred during an episode of Gutfeld's self-titled late-night comedy-centered program and may establish the host as one of Fox News' most courageously outspoken personalities.

Musk's defiant stance

During his appearance at the aforementioned New York Times event, Musk was asked about a recent decision by some prominent advertisers to pull ads from his X social media platform due to allegations of rampant hate speech and antisemitism on the site, as Axios noted.

Among the corporate powerhouses yanking ads from X were Apple and Disney, a scenario in which event moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin was most interested.

Musk, for his part, was defiant in his answer to questions about the impact of those corporate decisions, replying, “If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f**k yourself. Don't advertise.”

He further declared, “What this advertising boycott is going to do [is] kill [X]. The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail.”

Gutfeld weighs in

Reacting to Musk's statements, Gutfeld opined that the billionaire entrepreneur “may be the last man standing between real freedom of speech and the suffocating block of the censorship industrial complex which is made up of government, media, and tech forces.”

Gutfeld went on, “He realizes that advertisers have no spine and can be easily cowed by a special interest in cahoots with political allies.”

“If you don't believe me, I got two words for ya. Tucker Carlson,” the host boldly added, analogizing the former host's unceremonious dismissal from the network to the pressure campaign against Musk.

The very mention of Carlson by a Fox News host in the context of Musk's remarks on censorship was enough to send Gutfeld's audience into a pall of silence followed by nervous giggles.

One of the panel guests broke the tension by saying, “Wow,” to which Gutfeld replied simply, “Look at that, huh.”

Given the notable ratings successes Gutfeld has notched for the network in recent months, it remains to be seen whether he will face any repercussions for his not-so-thinly-veiled dig at Fox News brass, but one thing is certain, and that is the appreciation of legions of fans who applaud what was a courageous exposition on the current state of American media.