Fox News is alleging that Tucker Carlson is in breach of his contract with the network, as the former primetime host has begun uploading episodes of his new independent show to Twitter.
According to a report by Axios, Fox News’ legal team has notified Carlson that he is violating a noncompetition of the contract he signed when he was still employed with the network. Carlson’s contract states that, “Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox,'”
However, Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, is objecting to the network’s claim that Carlson is violating his contract. According to them, the clause does not apply to Carlson’s actions because Twitter is not a direct competitor of Fox News. Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has also stated that Twitter did not give Carlson a deal to post content on the platform.
Historically, media personalities like Carlson have been permitted to post whatever they want on their social media accounts because it is not considered to be a violation of a noncompetition clause. But Carlson has achieved massive success as he begins uploading video content to Twitter.
In his first episode of “Tucker on Twitter,” Carlson has amassed over 111 million views. His second episode, which was posted less than 24 hours ago, has already reached 41.6 million views. This sort of independent media success by a former cable host is unprecedented.
“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.”
Tucker Carlson’s lawyer Bryan Freedman
According to a source that spoke with Axios, it is the goal of Fox News to keep Carlson “sidelined” until 2025. However, with his numbers dominating any show on cable news, it appears that Carlson’s success on Twitter will not be diminished.
