Fox News has threatened to sue former prime-time host Tucker Carlson for breaching his contract by launching his new Twitter show, which has already been seen by more than 80 million people.
In a letter obtained by Axios, Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar reportedly sent a correspondence to Carlson’s lawyers alleging that he had “breached his contract” by airing his new Twitter show Tuesday night.
Carlson’s attorneys reportedly argued that any legal action by Fox would be a direct violation of their client’s First Amendment rights, as the news anchor is said to be seeking a way out of a $25 million annual deal with the company.
Carlson left his Fox News show on April 23 without giving an official reason as to why the company let its most-watched host go. The aforementioned contract prevented him from working at competing broadcasters.
In the statement to Axios, Carlson’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, accused Fox Brass of engaging in hypocrisy in silencing Carlson, noting that the company continually “defends its very existence on the grounds of freedom of speech.”
Tucker Carlson launched his highly anticipated Twitter show on Tuesday and received more than 81 million views in the first 24 hours
“Now they want to take away Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely for using social media to share his thoughts on current events,” Freedman wrote in the letter, seen by Axios.
He reportedly added, “Tonight we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video lasting over 10 minutes.”
Citing Carlson’s contract, the letter further states: “Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Carlson’s services are entirely exclusive to Fox.”
It adds that Carlson’s contract states that he is “prohibited from providing services of any kind, whether “over the Internet by streaming or similar distribution or other digital distribution, whether now known or later planned.”
On Tuesday night, he launched his first episode of his highly anticipated 10-minute Twitter show.
The short clip, which appeared alongside a “Tucker on Twitter” logo, has now garnered 199,000 retweets, 657,000 likes and 81 million views and counting.
Some said that by the time they finished watching the film, the number of views had increased by a million.
By comparison, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, the most-watched cable news show, averaged 3.1 million viewers each week in the weeks leading up to his surprise firing.
Twitter owner Elon Musk was quick to praise the 54-year-old former TV host: “It would be great to have shows from all parts of the political spectrum on this platform!” he wrote while retweeting Carlson’s first episode.
Tucker Carlson was the most-watched man on cable news until his abrupt firing in April
Elon Musk warmly welcomed the first episode of the former Fox News anchor’s show on Twitter
Carlson and his wife Susan Andrews are seen shortly after his release from Fox in late April
When Carlson announced his plans in May, Musk emphasized that he had no commercial agreement with the news network.
Fox’s 8pm show has since lost nearly half its viewership, and other prime-time shows have also seen significant ratings falls.
The decision to fire Carlson came days after Fox reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
The voting machine maker had filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against the broadcaster for “breathing life into a fabricated storyline” about voter fraud after the 2020 election.
Since then, numerous text messages sent by Carlson and other moderators at Fox have been leaked in the wake of the lawsuit.
One of these includes a text Carlson sent out the day after the Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6, in which he recalled a group of three white men who attacked an “Antifa kid” and demanded the victim’s death.
The development comes amid speculation about the speaker’s next move, especially now that his army of followers have announced their presence.
It also comes less than a day after Carlson’s lawyers sent an aggressive letter to Fox executives accusing them of fraud and breach of contract.
The letter, also obtained from Axios, argued that Carlson should not be bound by the non-competition clause.
His contract runs until January 2025 – after the election – and Fox wants to continue paying him, which would prevent him from starting a competing show.
The letter was sent by Carlson’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, to Fox executives Viet Dinh, the company’s chief legal officer, and Irena Briganti, its director of corporate communications.
It has been alleged that Fox employees, including “Rupert Murdoch himself,” broke promises to Carlson “willfully and in reckless disregard for the truth,” Axios reported.
Lawyers reportedly accused Fox executives, believed to be Dinh and Murdoch, of making “material representations” to Carlson that were intentionally broken, amounting to fraud.
The letter alleged Fox had broken his promise not to reveal Carlson’s private messages.
The letter also alleged that Fox had broken its promise not to settle with Dominion Voting Systems “in a way that would indicate wrongdoing on the part of Carlson” and backed out of an agreement, not agreeing to anything in a settlement do something that would damage Carlson’s reputation.
The letter states: “These actions not only violate the obligation of good faith and fair dealing contained in the Agreement, but also give rise to claims of breach of contract and willful and negligent misrepresentation.”
Carlson alleges in the letter that Briganti attempted to “undermine, embarrass and interfere” with Carlson’s future business prospects, which he says would constitute another breach of his employment contract.
“Make no mistake, we intend to subpoena Ms. Briganti’s cellphone records and related documents, demonstrating communications with her and all media outlets, including but not limited to The New York Times,” the letter said.
They also indicated that legal action would be taken soon.
Fox News must take immediate action “to preserve all existing documents and data” relevant to the relationship between Fox and Carlson, including correspondence between top executives and several media outlets.
A Fox News spokesperson said it was “categorically wrong” that Carlson lost his job as part of the network’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Dominion’s outside counsel, Stephen Shackelford, told Axios’ Dan Primack, “Dominion did not insist that they fire Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement.”
Axios reports that Carlson cannot join a competing news organization or start his own due to his $25 million annual contract with Fox, which expires in January 2025 (pictured Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News, with his sons James and Lachlan ). 2016)
After Carlson’s departure from Fox, ratings plummeted as the hot-tempered host’s fans left the network in droves
In his Tuesday video, Carlson attacked the mainstream media – targeting his former employer for his sudden dismissal last month.
“You often hear that the news is full of lies, but most of the time that’s not entirely true,” he begins.
“Most of what you see on TV or read in the New York Times is literally true.”
“But that doesn’t make it true,” he said.
“Basically, the news you consume is a lie — a lie of the most insidious and insidious kind.”
Carlson said that mainstream media misleads people “in every important story, every day of the week, every week of the year,” and said that after more than 30 years in the news industry, he “can tell you stories.”
“The best thing you can hope for in the news business right now is the freedom to speak the widest possible truth, but there are always limits,” he said.
“If you hit those limits often enough, you’ll get fired.” “It’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee,” he said in a thinly veiled reference to his sudden fall.
He then went on to say that the system was “dirty” and “completely corrupt.”
“There can be no free society if people are not allowed to say what they believe to be true,” Carlson said.
“Language is the basic requirement for democracy.”
“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” he continued.
“The last great and only one in the world is Twitter, which is where we are now.”
“Twitter has long served as the place where our nationwide conversations originate and evolve,” he said.
“Twitter is not a party site, everyone is allowed here, and we like that.”
Carlson said he wanted to escape the “lies” of the mainstream media
But, he said, “the media is still in charge,” and he’s hoping to change that.
“We’re going to be releasing a new version of the show that we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years on Twitter very soon,” Carlson finally announced, promising more information to come.
Sources close to Carlson also said he was considering building a direct-to-consumer media channel where his millions of fans could pay to see him, and that he would be recruited by networks such as Rumble and Newsmax.
His attorney told Axios over the weekend, “The idea that anyone will silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond absurd.”
Friends and sources close to the former Fox News host added that his allies on competing platforms were preparing to attack the network.
“They come up to him and say, ‘Do you want me to hit Fox?'” an unidentified close friend of Carlson’s told the outlet.
“He said, ‘No, I want to do this quietly and cleanly.’
‘Now we’re moving from peacetime to Defcon 1,’ the friend said, explaining, ‘His team is preparing for war. He wants his freedom.’
Another source close to Carlson added that Carlson “knows where a lot of bodies are buried and is ready to start drawing a map.”
The shocking decision to fire Carlson on April 19 came just six days after Fox reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Since then, numerous rumors about his firing have surfaced. They range from claims about Carlson’s texts that surfaced in the wake of the lawsuit, including some in which he claimed he hated Trump.
There were also rumors that Carlson may have been fired over a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a former booker on his show.