Tucker Carlson Promises to Take His Show to Twitter After Ouster from Fox News
The Tucker Carlson saga was bound to be filled with dramatic twists and turns. The conservative political commentator was one of Fox News’s biggest draws until late April, when he was fired from the network in the aftermath of the Dominion Voting Services lawsuit settlement.
The story took a new turn on Tuesday when Carlson announced on Twitter that he would host his show on the social media platform going forward.
“There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world — the only one — is Twitter,” Carlson said in his announcement video. “Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter is not a partisan site. Everybody’s allowed here, and we think that’s a good thing.”
Twitter’s owner Elon Musk responded to Carlson, tweeting, “On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever he or anyone may say. I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind.”
Musk claims that the service’s “Community Notes” feature will keep Carlson from saying anything misleading or false, though his critics were far from satisfied by that position. Many leading advertisers refused to support Carlson’s show on Fox News, as they said his program frequently advanced racist, homophobic, and conspiratorial views that they did not want to associate their products with. According to recent reports, Fox News has seen a fairly sizable return of advertisers who had previously been unwilling to spend money on the network when Carlson was the face of the brand.
However, advertising has never been the most important revenue driver for Fox News. Instead, the channel makes the bulk of its money in carriage fees paid by cable, satellite, and live-streaming providers. Reports following disclosures from the Dominion case indicate that as Fox begins to renegotiate with providers, it is looking to increase its carriage fee with companies like Comcast. While each individual deal is unique, Fox reportedly wants to bring in $3 for every customer who has access to its slate of channels, which includes Fox, Fox News, Fox Sports 1, FS2, and Fox Business Network.
If the media conglomerate is successful in achieving this new deal, it is likely that those price increases will be passed on to consumers in what some onlookers are calling the “Fox Fee.”
The move to Twitter suggests Carlson wants a freer reign to say whatever he wants without any fear of reprisal. His text messages to other Fox employees in the aftermath of the 2020 election were a crucial component of Dominion’s $785 million lawsuit against the network. Carlson disparaged then-President Trump and his repeated false claims about election fraud privately, then went on the air to defend and promote those false claims. That’s a big reason Dominion was able to bring Fox to the settlement table, and likely why Carlson was dismissed soon after.
There’s no word yet on when Carlson’s new show will appear on Twitter. According to Axios, Carlson’s contract with Fox does not allow him to host another show outside of the network until 2025. But Carlson’s attorney is alleging that Fox has already breached that contract and his non-compete provision is thus unenforceable. More time will be needed to sort out the legalities of the matter, but it’s a good bet that Carlson won’t want to stay out of the spotlight for any longer than necessary. If the non-compete is in place and Carlson moves forward with a Twitter-based show anyway, he would be forfeiting a reported $25 million owed to him by Fox.