Commentary

Carlson Reportedly Moving To 'Torch' Fox, In Talks With Musk

Tucker Carlson is “preparing to unleash” big-platform media allies to try to “bully” his former network, Fox News, into letting him work for, or start, a right-wing rival, according to Axios sources close to Carlson.

Carlson has also had informal talks with Newsmax, Rumble and Elon Musk, per the report.

Musk’s right-leaning tendencies have become increasingly obvious in his tweets and behavior since acquiring Twitter last year — including deciding to label PBS and other liberal media “government-sponsored” and restoring the accounts of numerous right wingers previously banned for violating Twitter policies.

Carlson has hired Hollywood lawyer Bryan Freeman (also the choice of recently fired CNN host Don Lemon) to prevent Fox — whose ratings have dropped since Carlson's ouster at the end of April — from keeping him off the air by continuing to pay him and hold him to his contract until it expires in January 2025.  

Carlson is also considering starting his own direct-to-consumer media venture and getting his fans to pay to watch him, like his Fox predecessor, Bill O’Reilly.

"The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous," Freeman told Axios.

Carlson is now claiming that Fox is responsible for leaking damaging video footage of his behind-the-scenes behavior at Fox News, including making sexist and racist statements. Media watchdog Media Matters has been using the clips in a series of articles.

Fox denies any involvement in the leaks, and on Friday sent a letter to Media Matters demanding that they stop using the footage. Media Matters responded by saying that Fox’s trying to argue against using newsworthy leaked material, “a cornerstone of journalism,” is “absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation.”

Also on Friday, Fox released letters from its lawyers that were sent to Dominion Voting Systems, asking Dominion to investigate whether the leaks of the Carlson videos emanated from within the voting software company and report the results to Fox by Monday.

Fox provided Dominion with the videos as part of the evidence discovery process in the Dominion defamation suit against the network and corporation recently settled for $787.5 million. The material was to remain confidential per court orders and the settlement’s terms, reports Reuters.

Dominion stated that no one associated with the company had leaked the confidential materials to the press.

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