According to Axios, Fox News sent a cease and desist letter to Tucker Carlson, demanding that their former host stop publishing “Tucker on Twitter.” This follows the network’s claim that Carlson violated his contract by posting his first straight-to-camera monologue on the social media platform on June 6. Reportedly, despite being off the air, Carlson is still under contract with Fox through Dec. 31, 2024.
It is not clear whether this means Fox owns Carlson’s ability to express his views on current events. Plenty of journalists and political commentators post their opinions and analysis on Twitter in addition to the content they create for their employers. When Fox made the contract violation claim, Carlson’s lawyer Bryan Freedman told Axios, “Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events.”
Following the cease and desist, Hartmeet Dhillon, who also represents Carlson, told Axios, “Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations.” Her statement continued, “Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election.”
The big question should be why Fox desperately wants Carlson out of the public discourse. Chadwick Moore, Carlson’s authorized biographer, reported that Fox taking Carlson off the air was part of the channel’s settlement with Dominion. Carlson’s official Twitter account retweeted that report. Variety posted a similar report.
Fox and Dominion denied reports that the financial settlement was predicated on a verbal agreement to fire Carlson. And in reality, this reported demand by Dominion makes little sense in relation to its lawsuit against Fox. Carlson was not a significant player in the firm’s defamation suit. In fact, shortly after the election, he gave a blistering assessment of attorney Sidney Powell’s claims when she refused to provide any documentation of her assertions about the election system. One source told Variety, “That condition was intended to hurt Fox, and Tucker is just collateral damage. Dominion wanted to punish Fox, and it’s working.”
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However, that does not explain Fox’s insistence that Carlson essentially remain silent on current events. If there was a verbal agreement, he is no longer anchoring the primetime lineup for the network. Fox could easily agree with Carlson’s view of his right to comment on social media. It isn’t, and that is the head-scratcher.
It doesn’t appear that Carlson is making any money expressing his views on Twitter. The content is not broadcast in his old timeslot. Both videos were posted at 6 p.m., not 8 p.m., where a rotating cast fills in for the missing Carlson. Precisely what is Fox’s objection to Carlson airing his opinion on a platform specifically designed for individuals to do just that?
So far, Carlson has put two videos on Twitter that have garnered well over 150 million views. By way of comparison, his cable news show drew an average of 3.3 million viewers for the first several months of 2023. Between Carlson’s reach on the platform and the recent experience of the Daily Wire’s documentary, What Is A Woman, Twitter has the potential to expand audiences for content creators. Musk demonstrated during the launch of Daily Wire’s film that counter-narrative views on important topics will not be censored.
In the first two videos, Carlson criticized the war in Ukraine and took on the sexualization of children, which appears to be sanctioned by our elites. His producer, Justin Wells, tweeted that Carlson will broadcast his response to the indictment of Donald Trump on Tuesday. Posting directly to Twitter under Elon Musk’s leadership, creators can bypass the gatekeepers.
Perhaps that is part of why Fox is so insistent on silencing Carlson. Despite being the major right-leaning cable outlet, it is still part of the legacy media whose audience is declining rapidly. If Fox takes formal legal action, the motivation may become more apparent. Because it doesn’t seem as if the rancorous back and forth is keeping Carlson out of the public discourse.
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