Tucker Carlson, former Fox News personality, has announced that he will bring a “new version” of his top-rated show to Twitter.
“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,” Carlson announced.
Carlson made the announcement in a Twitter video in which he railed against the mainstream media in the United States and praised Twitter as the final big channel that enables free speech.
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“At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie, a lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind,” Carlson said. “Facts have been withheld on purpose along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated.”
Once the Fox News’ most-watched presenter before his firing last month, Carlson said that mainstream media organizations were “thinly designed propaganda outlets” and that journalists who violated the “limits” put on them faced dismissal.
“The rule of what you can’t say defines everything. It’s filthy really, and it’s utterly corrupting,” the conservative host added. “You can’t have a free society if people are not allowed to say what they think is true. Speech is the fundamental prerequisite for democracy.”
The on-air personality said he would “soon” revive his show and “some other things” on Twitter.
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The announcement comes after Carlson received a public offer from Patrick Bet-David, Founder and CEO of Valuetainment, asking the host to join his online content portal. The offer includes $100 million over a five-year contract and to be installed as the president of Valuetainment and an equity stake in the company. This is on top of Carlson’s own shows and content he’d like to produce.
The conservative host’s sudden departure from Fox News comes after the media company settled a lawsuit put forth by Dominion Voting Systems, costing Fox $787.5 million in what appears to be one of the highest in U.S. defamation case history.
According to people familiar with the situation, Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, addressed a letter to Fox officials earlier Tuesday saying that Fox News had breached its contract with Carlson and requested that the firm retain documents.
Freedman’s letter claimed that Fox executives allegedly told Carlson that the communications he turned over as part of the discovery in the companies’ defamation litigation with Dominion Voting Systems would not be used against him in employment disputes.
But in the discovery phase of the lawsuit, it was revealed top Fox anchors and executives had repeatedly denounced the election fraud claims involving Dominion machines internally through private chats despite pushing otherwise on-air with their selected pundits, so as not to anger the “base.”
Carlson himself said in a text message after the 2020 election that he “passionately hated” former US President Donald Trump, according to court filings.
The decision that Carlson won’t be returning to his show was so abrupt, even the host seemingly wasn’t aware. He ended his final Friday night broadcast with: “We will be back on Monday.”
He did come back on that week, but in a video clip posted on Twitter. Within his two minute monologue, he discuss how “unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” and how “the undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all.”
Tucker then rambles on how the US has become a one party state, how the current orthodoxies won’t last, and how the “people in charge” are afraid. He then signs off by stating that there is hope, and that he’ll see us soon.
Fox News did not provide an official reason on Carlson’s departure in its statement, nor did the host explain particularly what got him laid off from his home network of 14 years in his recent resurfacing on Twitter.
But, leaked texts and videos added color to what might have been the reason that pushed Fox management to axe one of its top anchors. They showed Carlson calling a certain woman “yummy”, characterizing his fans as “post-menopausal”, being cited in a text saying “that’s not how white men fight”, and trashing his former network’s streaming service in private conversations.
Carlson’s exit initially landed a hit on the 8pm timeslot in terms of viewership. But, advertisers are reportedly finding their way back into the said schedule, according to Variety.
The 8 p.m. slot is now occupied by Fox News Tonight. The new program has a rotating cast of anchors, beginning with Brian Kilmeade in the first week, Lawrence Jones last week, and Kayleigh McEnany this week.
While Carlson attracted the highest number of viewers for a cable news program during his time at Fox News, advertisers have long avoided his slot, owing to the host’s controversial leanings.
But Musk did not have a hand in it
Carlson’s decision to resume his show on Twitter comes only weeks after he spoke with its CEO Elon Musk on Fox News.
Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist and longtime critic of Twitter’s leftist slant, has made it easier for right-wing views to proliferate on the site since purchasing the company for $44 billion last year.
But the Twitter chief clarified that he had not signed a “deal of any kind whatsoever” with Carlson.
“On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said,” Musk said in a tweet. “I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”
Musk went on to say that he hoped “many others, particularly from the left,” will become Twitter content providers.
This ironically comes after Musk himself had a kerfuffle with media organizations related to Twitter’s move of labelling some outfits as “government-funded”, similar to the tag associated with propaganda-like broadcast firms in authoritarian-leaning countries like Russia and China.
Media firms classified as such, including NPR, have halted their Twitter activity in response to the labeling. In escalating the pettiness, Musk has threatened to reassign NPR’s Twitter account to “another company.”
Information for this story was found via Al Jazeera, The Wall Street Journal, and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
