Former news rivals Chris Cuomo, who was fired from CNN in 2021, and Tucker Carlson, who was booted from Fox News in 2023, bonded over the “hypocrisy” and “ugly business” of mainstream media in the latest episode of Carlson’s podcast.

“It gives me no particular joy to say this, but you were right about it,” Cuomo told Carlson, before adding, “Don’t get used to it. It’s the last time you’ll hear it in this conversation.”

Cuomo recalled Carlson telling him, “Give it time, embrace doing what you’re doing, and don’t look for the acceptance of where you were,” adding, “That was really good advice.”

In December 2021, Cuomo was fired after reports that he helped his brother Andrew Cuomo, then the governor of New York, defend himself from sexual harassment allegations.

Carlson called CNN’s treatment of Cuomo, who had interviewed the then-governor on-air, “weird hypocrisy.”

Cuomo added, “So from a year ago until today, I now know that. And there is something comforting about that. It’s an ugly business, it’s an ugly time.”

Carlson responded, “It’s been almost two years for me since I haven’t worked in the media. And it’s weird when you do work there for your whole life, you just accept that everyone lies all the time and it’s totally treacherous and people who claim to be your friends actually hate you and every dispute is settled with a lawyer… you just accept that’s the way things work, but that’s not how things work outside the media.

Cuomo said that current media culture means, “It’s okay for me to destroy you by a standard that I would never want imposed on me. If I were to cover you in any situation and put a positive spin on it, that’s a puff piece.”

He joked that media pundits would criticism him by saying, “Cuomo’s been red-pilled. He got bought up by that preppy, smiley chucklehead,” which made Carlson laugh.

Cuomo added, “And if I then say, well, I sat down with Tucker and as I knew it, he’s the devil’s spawn, [they’d say] “Ooh, that was a hard-hitting piece. He really came at him.”

He concluded, “The commodity is negativity. If you want to be a hard journalist, you better say something negative about somebody. It’s a proxy for insight.”

The former CNN anchor called working at NewsNation “a blessing” and praised their “willingness and acceptance” of supporting both him and his brother, Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York. “They were like, ‘Wow, this is great for your family. This is great for your brother. We’re excited for you guys,’” he shared.