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The pushback against Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s blatant on-air racism is continuing to affect the company’s bottom line as companies pull more ads from Carlson’s show.

Carlson took a little vacation this week after launching into a wildly deceptive rant on Tuesday in which he claimed that the dangers of white supremacy in the United States are a “hoax.” Of course, what else would he say, given that the “manifesto” of a white supremacist terrorist who murdered at least 22 people last weekend in El Paso, TX, used the same rhetoric about immigrant “invasions” as Carlson so often uses on his show.



Or that his words were praised by former Ku Klux Klan “grand wizard” David Duke:




According to Media Matters for America’s Jordan Uhl, Carlson’s nightly ad load has seen a “seismic shift” since Tuesday, when the Fox News host claimed that white supremacy is “not a real problem in America,” but rather “a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.”



“The number of paid ads has drastically plummeted in the last week,” Uhl wrote.



Carlson’s show has been guest-hosted the last couple of nights by other Fox News regulars, including Brian Kilmeade, Mark Steyn, and Tammy Bruce. Meanwhile, companies like SteinMart, HelloFresh, and Nestlé, among others, announced they will no longer advertise on the show.




Seafood restaurant chain Long John Silver’s announced on Thursday that it would not advertise on any Fox News show, including Carlson’s. As Media Matters for America President Angelo Carusone noted, in 2018, Long John Silver’s had placed ads on Fox News “almost every day.”




A graphic published by Media Matters for America shows that the number of paid ads aired during Carlson’s show dropped from 21 last Monday to 11 on Friday. Meanwhile, the number of public service announcements aired in their place jumped from zero on Monday to six on Friday. During the same period, Fox News house ads increased from four to 10, the media watchdog group found.



By comparison, Carlson’s show had about 36 paid ads per night at the same time last year, according to HuffPost.




Carlson’s first real problem with advertisers began in December of last year, when he said that immigrants make the country “dirtier and poorer.” After that show, at least 14 advertisers either paused or suspended their relationship with Tucker Carlson Tonight, as Splinter noted at the time.



More advertisers bailed last March, when Media Matters for America unearthed several radio recordings from 2006 to 2011 in which Carlson is heard making revolting remarks about statutory rape and other topics. In those recordings, Carlson also referred to Iraqis as “semiliterate primitive monkeys.” At least 26 major sponsors had dropped their advertising on the show by that point.




Now, that number is about 50 companies.



Carlson is scheduled to return from vacation on Aug. 19.

