The battle is on between Fox News and their former ratings powerhouse, Tucker Carlson, who wants to go out and forge his own path with his own show. His lawyer, Bryan Freedman, is alleging that Fox News, including Rupert Murdoch himself, broke promises to Carlson, “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth.” Axios:
Why it matters: The aggressive letter from his lawyers to Fox positions Carlson to argue that the noncompete provision in his contract is no longer valid — freeing him to launch his own competing show or media enterprise.
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On Tuesday, Carlson announced he would be bringing his show to Twitter,.
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“Starting soon we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter,” he said in the video. “We bring some other things too, which we’ll tell you about. But for now we’re just grateful to be here. Free speech is the main right that you have. Without it, you have no others.”
The intrigue: The Twitter move would seem to technically violate Carlson’s contract with Fox, but his lawyers’ letter effectively holds that Fox breached the contract first.
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Sources told Axios that Carlson’s lawyers sent their letter before he took to Twitter to announce his new show.
Catch up quick: Axios reported Sunday that Carlson, frustrated by being held to his contract, is preparing to unleash allies to pressure the network into letting him work for — or start — a right-wing rival.
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Carlson’s contract runs until January 2025 and Fox wants to keep paying him, which would prevent him from starting a competing show.
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Carlson already has gotten eye-popping offers from several right-wing outlets, and has talked to Elon Musk about working together.
What is interesting about this is that Carlson as an insider is likely able to do far more damage to Fox News than all the outsiders combined.
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Notably, the letter alleges Fox broke an agreement with Carlson not to leak his private communications to the media and not to use Carlson’s private messages “to take any adverse employment action against him.”
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Multiple outlets have reported on Carlson’s redacted communications from pre-trial discovery documents and have suggested that they led to his ousting.
The letter also alleges Fox broke promises not to settle with Dominion Voting Systems “in a way which would indicate wrongdoing” on the part of Carlson and not to take any actions in a settlement that would harm Carlson’s reputation.
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Carlson was told by a member of the Fox board that he was taken off the air as part of the Dominion settlement, two sources briefed on a conversation told Axios.
Fox News is calling that statement “categorically false.”
It looks like the first steps on the litigation trail are being taken.
This will be like pro wrestling only not the modern version. Decades ago the competitors became true athletes. Large, fit/muscular (albeit often due to steroids), immensely strong and athletic, even acrobatic. Yes, so much of it’s fake but it’s a show that has a huge audience. But I’m talking about old-school Championship Wrestling like we’d see on black and white TV when I was growing up. Mostly small, badly lit “arenas” and wrestlers that were flabby and pudgy, even fat sometimes and looked hilarious in those black tights. It was fun to watch back then because it was so pathetic.
This will be like on of THOSE matches from fifty plus years ago.
Funny how Carlson talks about “freedom of speech” but he should be aware that the Constitution’s guarantees don’t apply here since CONGRESS (and the Federal government, by extension) didn’t diminish his “freedom of speech”; FoxNews did, and it’s a PRIVATE company that sets its own rules on its employees’ rights to speech.
Also, “free speech” does NOT protect one’s right to lie (just consider that testimony must be given to tell the “truth”–even minor dissembling can get you in trouble with the court or with Congress) and Carlson did almost nothing but lie on a nightly basis, with his employers’ full backing and support. But, when his employers decided his “speech” went beyond the pale, they did pretty much the same thing as every other employer can do when an employee breaks the rules. Maybe Tuck-Tuck should talk to Florida teachers who risk their jobs by daring to use a student’s preferred pronouns or offers support to a student trying to come out to their parents about the importance of “free speech.”