Fox News weighing legal action against Tucker Carlson: Report
Misty Severi
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Fox News is reportedly considering legal action against former host Tucker Carlson after he hosted a new program on social media, according to a news report published on Wednesday.
The network claimed Carlson breached his contract by hosting a new show on Twitter, which aired its first 10-minute episode on Tuesday. Carlson is allegedly contractually prohibited from rendering any services, online or otherwise, according to a letter obtained by Axios.
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“This evening we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes,” the letter read.
“Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox.’ … In connection with such breach and pursuant to the Agreement, Fox expressly reserves all rights and remedies which are available to it at law or equity.”
The letter added that Carlson’s contract states the former host 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.”
Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Carlson, claimed that legal action on the part of Fox News would violate his client’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, according to Axios.
“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,” Freedman said.
Carlson was fired by Fox News in April, shortly after the network agreed to a $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the network for making false claims about the company.
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Carlson has since accused Fox of fraud and breaching its contract, claiming senior executives broke alleged promises made to Carlson “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth.” The former host’s lawyers claimed the executives broke their promise not to settle with Dominion in a way that “indicates wrongdoing” on Carlson’s part.
Although Carlson no longer works on the network, Carlson’s contract remains in effect until January 2025. Carlson has been attempting to negotiate with Fox News on letting him out of the contract early, but no agreement has been reached.