Twitter has apparently figured out a way to become even more toxic: Host a Tucker Carlson show on the platform.
The recently fired Fox News star on Tuesday announced in a Twitter post that he will “soon” relaunch his primetime program on the Elon Musk-owned platform. It comes as he has fired off a letter to Fox News accusing it of breaching his contract and leaking his communications.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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In the nearly three-minute video, Carlson launches into a diatribe against the news media, definitively declaring, “The news you consume is a lie.” He argues that viewers have no outlet to speak the truth anymore, because when a person who works at a media outlet goes up against the guardrails set by the organization, he said, “you will get fired for it.” Carlson was fired by Fox News on April 24.
“You can’t have a free society if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true. Speech is the fundamental prerequisite for democracy,” Carlson said. “That’s why it’s enshrined in the first of our constitutional amendments. Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world. The only one is Twitter, where we are now.”
Carlson did not give a timetable for when his show will reboot, but his website has been updated to remove all Fox News videos and to add new merch. “TUCKER IS BACK,” reads one banner on the website’s homepage.
The video also follows a coordinated campaign by some famous Carlson allies to pressure Fox to release him from his contract and allow him to get him back in front of an audience before the 2024 audience, as Confider reported.
Carlson’s new destination marks a win for CEO Elon Musk, who has long sought to turn the platform into a supposedly unvarnished “free speech” haven—even as he has blocked and censored accounts, keywords, and organizations he does not like. Axios reported on Monday that Carlson and Musk had discussed working together, though specifics weren’t broached.
The video launched minutes before Axios further reported that Carlson plans to wage war on the network. Carlson’s attorney Bryan Freedman sent a letter to Fox executives Viet Dinh and Irena Briganti claiming networknexecutives‚ including Rupert Murdoch, tried to damage him “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth.”
Freedman claimed in the letter that the network made promises to him that were intentionally broken and leaked his text messages from the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case in an attempt to embarrass him, which Carlson’s camp suggested would amount to a breach of contract. Freedman urged the network to preserve any communications Briganti made with outside news outlets.
“Make no mistake, we intend to subpoena Ms. Briganti’s cell phone records and related documents, which evidence communications with her and all media, including, but not limited to The New York Times,” the letter read, according to Axios.
The Daily Beast and multiple other outlets reported on the contents of Carlson’s redacted text messages in the Dominion case, including his plotting with “straight news” anchor Bret Baier to win back disgruntled MAGA viewers and Carlson’s anger toward hard-news journalists at the company.
