Tucker Carlson is again – on Twitter.
The proper wing TV persona mentioned in a video on his Twitter feed Tuesday that he’s relaunching his present on the social media platform, which is owned by Elon Musk. Carlson was abruptly fired from his prime time submit at Fox Information weeks in the past, shortly after the community paid a settlement to Dominion Voting Methods in its defamation lawsuit.
In a 3 minute video, Carlson – who has labored for CNN, MSNBC and Fox Information – berated the mainstream media for allegedly mendacity to the general public. He advised viewers: “You might be being manipulated.” Carlson additionally mentioned Twitter is not partisan.
“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that permit free speech. The final large one remaining on the earth, the one one, is Twitter, the place we at the moment are,” Carlson mentioned in Tuesday’s video. “Twitter has lengthy served because the place the place our nationwide dialog incubates and develops. Twitter is just not a partisan web site, all people’s allowed right here, and we predict that is factor.”
A Fox consultant did not instantly reply to a request for remark. A Twitter spokesperson responded with a poop emoji when requested for touch upon Tuesday.
Carlson’s shift to Twitter comes as former President Donald Trump is working for election once more in 2024. Within the wake of President Joe Biden’s conquer Trump in 2020, each media shops and social media platforms are contending with the unfold of false claims about the latest election.
Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle Dominion’s defamation lawsuit that the community and its hosts unfold false claims concerning the election. Fox faces the same lawsuit with voting machine tech firm Smartmatic USA.
Carlson has not publicly addressed his firing from Fox Information, though he broke his silence days after he was booted from the community, additionally in a video posted on his Twitter feed. “While you take some time off, you notice how unbelievably silly the debates you see on tv are, they’re fully irrelevant,” he mentioned throughout his April 26 video.
Since then, varied media reviews have emerged saying that textual content messages from Carlson, together with a racist comment about how “white males” struggle, sealed his destiny at Fox. The texts have been unearthed in the course of the discovery course of within the Dominion defamation case.
In current days, unredacted parts of proof from the Dominion lawsuit have come out in media reviews, which have additionally mentioned Carlson was pushing the community to let him discover his personal platform. Carlson was reportedly in a contract dispute with Fox, which is claimed to final by means of 2025, and was mentioned to have had discussions with Musk.
Carlson’s final present on Fox aired on Friday, April 21. The next Monday, Fox mentioned in an announcement: “FOX Information Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to half methods. We thank him for his service to the community as a bunch and previous to that as a contributor.”
Fox has seen its prime-time rankings dip since Carlson’s exit, though high advertisers have returned to the timeslot for the community. Carlson’s program was amongst one of many highest rated cable TV segments. Fox nonetheless touts being the top-rated cable information community, which CEO Lachlan Murdoch noted on Tuesday’s earnings name with traders.
In the meantime, a lot smaller networks like Newsmax have seen a stark improve in viewership since Carlson has gone off Fox’s air, in response to Nielsen rankings knowledge.
In his final week on Fox Information, Carlson hosted Musk on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Throughout the interview, which aired over two nights, Carlson asked Musk whether or not he thought Twitter would weigh closely in future elections because it had for Trump. “I feel it can play a big function in elections, not simply domestically however internationally,” Musk advised Carlson.
In the meantime, Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN will maintain a live town hall with Trump. The community has vowed to carry Trump accountable, with CEO David Zaslav saying because the Republican frontrunner, Trump must be on air.
–CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this text.
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