The terrible truth about the sacking of Tucker Carlson: someone just as odious will replace him | Emma Brockes

Think of those presenters who reigned at Fox News before: Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. There's an endless supply of horror

It is a truism of the US news industry that no one is bigger than the network itself, an insight that Donald Trump - binned by Rupert Murdoch last year - may still be painfully processing, and which this week became suddenly clear to Tucker Carlson.

The former cable news host, who, it was announced on Monday, had agreed to part ways" with the network, has hired an aggressive Hollywood lawyer - and in line with the preferred volume of the man generally, seems unlikely to go quietly. Even as the share price at Fox dropped in response to the news, wiping $500m (400m) off its value in apparent flattery of Carlson, the question remains pertinent as to how much he, and those like him, matter as individuals.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist