© AP Photo/Richard Drew, File
"Red Lobster's advertising buying guidelines reflect our core values and commitment to supporting programming that represents the highest standards of good taste, fair practice and objectivity," the seafood chain said in a statement Tuesday.
"We reserve the right to make changes to our purchases when the dialogue is no longer in line with our criteria," the company said.
Mr. Tucker sparked outrage last month after he claimed illegal immigration made the U.S. "poorer and dirtier." More recently, he cast doubt on the claim that higher pay for women is a "victory for feminism." Activists like ThinkProgress founder Judd Legum renewed the boycott, specifically calling on Red Lobster to pull its ads.
Mr. Carlson has lost more than 20 sponsors since the initial backlash, but due to the timing of Red Lobster's announcement, the restaurant chain may be the first sponsor to pull ads from the show over the women's pay comments, The Wrap reported.
A spokesperson for Red Lobster declined to say what prompted the company's decision, The Wrap reported.
Fox News responded by recycling a statement from last month that attacked "far-left" activist groups for attempting to censor Mr. Carlson.
"We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants," Fox News said. "Attempts were made last month to bully and terrorize Tucker and his family at their home. He is now once again being threatened via Twitter by far-left activist groups with deeply political motives. While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view."
Comment: Tucker Carlson's show is one of the most watched TV news programs in the US - and has not only been a strong and critical voice to counter Washington's "conventional wisdom" on issues political and cultural, but does so in fairly coherent and well argued way. It is for this reason that, like many of the de-platforming attacks we are witnessing against figures like Jordan Peterson and others on the web, we are now seeing a concerted effort at pulling ads from Carlson's show, which relies on ad revenue to sustain his program.
No doubt we will soon learn of yet another organization, tied to the US 'deep state' that - like Hamilton68, The Alliance for Securing Democracy or the ironically-named Integrity Initiative (in the UK) - has been the driver behind getting companies to pull their ads in the Orwellian name of "values" or "objectivity". The real voices for social sanity are now being marginalized, demonitized, and evicted outright from their respective media spaces at an ever increasing pace.