Last week, Tucker Carlson made the surprise announcement that he will launch a new show on Twitter, which was entirely unexpected given the state of the platform since Elon Musk took over as CEO. Nevertheless, Carlson is aggressively making moves to launch a new version of his program on the social media site, but that’s one major hurdle in his way: Tucker is technically still a Fox News employee.
According to a new report, which floats the narrative that Carlson was pulled off the air because of an undisclosed verbal agreement with Dominion Voting Systems that clinched the settlement with Fox (Dominion denies such an agreement was made), Carlson wants to “quickly” get his now show on Twitter and has already brought in his Tucker Carlson Tonight senior producer Justin Wells. Filming is taking place inside Carlson’s home in Maine where he reportedly has a full studio.
As for dealing with Fox News, Carlson has retained some heavy-hitting legal counsel to get out of his employment contract.
Via Variety:
After learning that he was being sidelined on April 24, Carlson hired high-powered Hollywood attorney Bryan Freedman for the contract dispute. Freedman — whose other media clients include Don Lemon (ousted by CNN on the same day as the Carlson-Fox split), Megyn Kelly, Chris Cuomo and Tiffany Cross — is well known as the lawyer you retain when you are ready to go to war with a media giant. As such, Freedman sent a letter to Fox on May 9 saying Fox employees, including “Rupert Murdoch himself,” broke promises to Carlson “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth.” (A source says Fox has not yet responded to the letter.)
As Variety notes, Freedman is the same attorney who secured a $69 million pay out for Megyn Kelly after she was fired from NBC News. He also issued a notable warning to Fox News while speaking to Axios: “The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.”
(Via Variety)