Following Tucker Carlson’s first Twitter commentary, which aired on April 26, counsel for Fox News warned him that he had breached his contract with his former network. When he hosted a second episode on June 6, titled “Episode One,” Fox got serious: They told him to “cease and desist.”
Although this writer hasn’t seen the letter, he reviewed the consequences with a First Amendment attorney who essentially laughed at Fox. In essence, the First Amendment overrides a contract to remain silent as a condition of employment if he leaves.
Carlson has hired a high-end litigator to represent him against Fox’s charges. Bryan Freedman, instrumental in the $500 million litigation related to Michael Jackson’s estate, agreed with this writer’s local attorney:
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.
Carlson also has hired Harmeet Dhillon, Donald Trump’s legal advisor during his 2020 presidential campaign, to augment his legal team. Said Dhillon:
Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations.
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.
Tucker will not be silenced by anyone.… He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country and will remain so.
Carlson’s first two Twitter presentations were viewed nearly 170 million times, a number that no doubt is shaking the very foundations at Fox News. Tomorrow, in “Episode Two,” Carlson will be interviewing former President Donald Trump after his arraignment on charges relating to his handling of “secret” documents upon his exit from the White House in 2021.
While at Fox, Carlson’s show generated an average of 3.5 million viewers every night. Following his departure in April, the network’s viewership plummeted by more than a million, many of them migrating to One American News Network (OANN) and Newsmax.
Carlson’s ratings were no doubt helped along by favorable comments from Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, who posted after his first episode that it “would be great to have shows from all parts of the political spectrum on this platform.”
While his attorneys fight it out with Fox News, Carlson’s viewership will likely continue to soar while Fox’s will likely continue to sag. Once negotiations are complete and Carlson is free to exercise his First Amendment rights on Twitter (or elsewhere), history may place Fox’s decision to fire Carlson on the list of epic fails — along with Ford Motor Company’s Edsel, Coca Cola’s New Coke, and Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light woke promo.
