Yeah I agree it shouldn't matter either. I think it intensified with drug tests, which were mandated by insurance companies, because health insurance in the US goes through the employer. So the companies, through the insurance companies, demanded drug tests from everyone. Which meant that off-time wasn't fully in your control anymore.

Employees being a reflection of the company they work for has always been a thing though, and I imagine Tucker isn't too happy about how this make him or his show look, especially at this critical moment for him.

But I agree, he used a pseudonym for a reason... I find it disturbing a person can be fired for what were supposed to be anonymous comments made while he was off the job. Comments that weren't even violent and didn't break any US law.

But ultimately it's a PR game, and they're in the business of PR, and the office politics make sense that he has to go for the organization to remain dignified-looking to the public.

US "free speech" only really protects from the government, unfortunately. If he had a gov't job, he probably wouldn't have gotten fired. Corporations aren't really bound by much in the US, and that's the main problem. It's dog-eat-dog monarchy-style organizations in the American corporate world. If you make the king unhappy, you are banished. That's usually how it works. This guy made Tucker (and his news station by extension) look real bad, so now he's gone. It's all about the optics. Which is why those who can shout the loudest have such a disproportionate amount of power in this culture. "The customer is always right" and for Tucker his customers are viewers and ad agencies that don't want to be associated with the antics shown by this writer.