Last week, Tucker Carlson, the former No. 1-rated Fox News host, announced he would be bringing his show to Elon’s platform — Twitter. Amazingly, Tucker’s post was the No. 1 Twitter post last week.
Forbes magazine reported that Carlson’s post garnered approximately 900,000 likes and nearly 200,000 retweets as of Saturday afternoon. The post led other lead contributors such as the Korean pop superstars BTS and Taylor Swift, who posted special announcements last week.
Carlson’s post also eclipsed Twitter CEO Elon Musk who announced bringing on a new CEO for the platform — NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino.
In his video tweet, Carlson provided no details about why Fox News terminated his contract but noted that journalists at Fox must self-censor if they wish to keep their jobs.
Musk has acknowledged that he and Carlson had a private meeting but that he and the former Fox News host’s post had “not signed any deal whatsoever” and that if Carlson were to create a new news program on Twitter, he would be subject to the same content moderation rules as other content creators.
Carlson said: “Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops.”
Carlson added that many mainstream news outlets are “thinly disguised propaganda outlets. … You see it on cable news; you talk about it on Twitter.”
“The result may feel like a debate, but actually, the gatekeepers are still in charge,” Carlson said. “We think that’s a bad system. We know exactly how it works, and we’re sick of it.”
Lamenting the loss of free speech, Carlson said: “There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world is Twitter. If you bump up against the limits [in the news business], you will be fired for it.”
Tucker also mentioned the coming of a new website: TuckerCarlson.com.
Reportedly, viewership at Fox for Tucker’s former prime-time slot is down by more than 50%.
Some suggest that moving to Twitter may allow Carlson to bypass Fox News’ contract, which executives argue is binding through the end of 2024. Tucker claims the network is in breach of contract.
Carlson’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, told Axios last week that “the idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.”
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