Tucker Carlson, the prime-time Fox News host who was sidelined in April, has chosen to upload the first edition of his new show to Twitter. This move may lead to a showdown with his employer, Fox News, with whom he is under contract until the beginning of 2025. The ten-minute video was presented as if it were a streamlined version of his nightly program, with no interviews or produced segments, just a monologue from Mr. Carlson. In this, he expressed his sympathies for Russia’s President Putin and mocked his Ukrainian counterpart, accusing the mainstream media of lying. Lastly, he talked about extraterrestrial life and UFOs, which he believes are genuine. Carlson concluded the show, named “Tucker on Twitter,” stating that he would be returning with more content soon.
Fox management suspended Carlson after deciding he was too much of a liability. The two parties have yet to agree on the terms of his exit from the network, or the kind of programming he would be allowed to produce. Carlson’s current contract, like many anchor contracts, is likely to involve clauses prohibiting unauthorized media appearances. Fox News declined to respond to a request for comment. Last month, Carlson revealed his plan to take a version of his Fox show to Twitter.
Carlson’s exit from Fox was due to the discovery of a racist text message he had sent to one of his producers, discovered by the Fox Board as part of the evidence amassed by Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against claims of election fraud aired on the network. Fox News entered into a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on the day that the trial was scheduled to begin in April.
