Fox News has issued a cease and desist letter to Tucker Carlson over his new online show Tucker on Twitter, and Carlson is taking it about as well as you would expect.
According to NBC, a source familiar with the matter said that the network sent the letter because they say Carlson breached his contract by starting the online show.
\u201cNBC News confirms: Fox has sent a 'cease and desist' letter to Tucker Carlson, alleging that he breached his contract by launching a new show on Twitter. @MSNBC\u201d— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1686585602
Carlson was fired by Fox News at the end of April, shortly after the network agreed to pay a nearly $18 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems to avoid going to trial over Dominion's assertion that they spread Donald Trump's big lie that the election was stolen from him.
One of Carlson's attorneys, Harmeet Dhillon, insisted that Fox News was trying to silence Carlson until the 2024 election.
"Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations. Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election.
She concluded:
"Tucker will not be silenced by anyone."
Carlson seems to be continuing to produce more of the same kind of content that he did on his Fox News show, just on Twitter.
In his first episode of Tucker on Twitter, Carlson claimed, without providing any evidence, that Ukraine attacked a dam in Russian-occupied territory. He also referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy using hateful and antisemitic language.
\u201cTucker Carlson may no longer have a prime-time platform, but now he's taken his antisemitic claims to Twitter. This is exactly the type of dangerous, hateful content that has no place in mainstream public squares.\u201d— ADL (@ADL) 1686167218
In the third episode, set to debut on Tuesday, Carlson plans to talk about Donald Trump's most recent indictment related to his mishandling of classified documents.
Trump is scheduled to be arraigned on those charges in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
Many Carlson supporters echoed Dhillon's sentiments that Fox News was attempting to silence Carlson in the lead-up to the 2024 Presidential election.
\u201cJUST IN: Fox News has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tucker Carlson after he released the 2nd episode of his new show on Twitter.\n\nFox News is showing their true agenda: Put a muzzle on Tucker before the 2024 election.\n\nTucker doesn\u2019t seem to care about the letter considering\u2026\u201d— Collin Rugg (@Collin Rugg) 1686582806
Others said Fox News was just upset that they lost viewers when they fired Carlson.
\u201c@CollinRugg They\u2019re just upset that he proved he was the one carrying their ratings\u201d— Collin Rugg (@Collin Rugg) 1686582806
Some called for a boycott of Fox News over the letter.
\u201c@Not_the_Bee Boycott. His ousting alone was already way more unforgivable than what Annheuser Busch ever did.\u201d— Not the Bee (@Not the Bee) 1686599279
Meanwhile, among those who don't support either Carlson or Fox News, the reactions ranged from apathy to agreement with Fox News' letter, to eager anticipation of the upcoming drama and conservative infighting.
\u201c@kylegriffin1 @MSNBC Yes, don't agree with much that Fox News does, but I do agree with this\u201d— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1686585602
\u201c@kylegriffin1 @MSNBC Let me just...\u201d— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1686585602
\u201c@kylegriffin1 @MSNBC This divorce will be fun.\u201d— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1686585602
\u201c@NBCNews The Republican Party is in disarray.\n\nThe FOX reactionary news empire is crumbling.\n\nThank you, Mr. Trump! \ud83d\ude04\u201d— NBC News (@NBC News) 1686582723
A separate letter sent by Fox News earlier in the week, which did not contain a cease and desist order, stated that Carlson was in breach of his contact with the network by hosting his Twitter show.
The contract reportedly contains language that forbids Carlson to work with other networks while under contract with Fox News.
Another of Carlson's attorneys, Bryan Freedman, asserted that the network's challenge of Carlson's new show was a challenge to his right to freedom of speech.
Freedman said:
"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."
Carlson and his attorneys have not given any indication that they plan to comply with the cease and desist letter, so he will presumably be back on Twitter tomorrow as planned.
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