The drama between Tucker Carlson and Fox News just keeps getting louder. First, he and the network “parted ways” in April after Fox paid $787 million to settle a defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the network for making false claims about the company. And now that the former prime-time anchor has taken his ramblings to a new Twitter show, Fox News is claiming he’s in breach of contract.
Here’s the lowdown: Axios reports that it has obtained a copy of a letter sent to Tucker Carlson’s lawyers on Wednesday stating that the anchor violated his contract by launching a Twitter show this week, which Fox considers to be in direct competition with its own content.
The letter refers to Carlson’s contract — which was signed on Nov. 8, 2019, and amended on Feb. 16, 2021 — stating:
“This evening we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes. … Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox.’ … [Carlson is] prohibited from rendering services of any type whatsoever, whether ‘over the internet via streaming or similar distribution, or other digital distribution whether now known or hereafter devised.”
Essentially, even though Carlson left his post at Fox News, he is still under contract with the network. And that contract apparently carries a pretty strict non-compete clause. According to Axios, a source has said Fox executives want Carlson sidelined from giving the news until 2025 — when we assume he turns back into a pumpkin and rolls home.
However, Carlson’s lawyers said any legal action related to the Twitter show would violate the anchor’s First Amendment rights:
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.
Except, Carlson himself has labeled his 10-minute descent into prolix rants that somehow link the Nova Kakhovka dam explosion with Black Lives Matter and UFOs as “Ep. 1.” Typically, episodes belong to “shows,” as do fully designed title cards like the one that ends his first serving of culture-war gobbledygook.
We’re not sure what else one would call a weekly scheduled program with a title (Tucker on Twitter) if not a show. A habit? A repositing of rhadamanthine rhetoric? Sounds pretty extra that way. And if Carlson disagrees, well, maybe he’ll finally invite us on his “weekly video-captured expression of thoughts” to argue about it.
