Weeks after his abrupt separation from Fox News, Tucker Carlson announced that his show will now air on Twitter.
“As of tonight there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world is Twitter,” explained Carlson in a Tuesday video message. “Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter is not a partisan site. Everybody’s allowed here and we think that’s a good thing,”
“Starting soon we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter,” Carlson added.
We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023
Fox’s decision to sack Carlson sent shockwaves through the news business. His primetime show at 8 p.m. regularly drew over 3 million viewers. Since Carlson’s departure, the hour’s ratings have been halved. Other primetime hours are also down, with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly calling the ratings decline a “bloodbath.”
“The best you can hope for in the news business at this point is the freedom to tell the fullest truth that you can. But there are always limits. And you know that if you bump up against those limits often enough you will be fired for it. That’s not a guess. It’s guaranteed,” Carlson explained.
“The rule of what you can’t say defines everything. . . . You can’t have a free society if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true,” Carlson added.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded to the news in a tweet, saying: “On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said.”
Musk clarified Twitter and Carlson “have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever.”
“Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators,” wrote Musk. “Rewards means subscriptions and advertising revenue share (coming soon), which is a function of how many people subscribe and the advertising views associated with the content.”
While Fox never stated the exact reason for Carlson’s dismissal, reports quoting different Fox News sources have given a variety of answers, including his depiction of the attack on the Capitol on January 6 as “mostly peaceful chaos,” accusations made by ex-Carlson producer Abby Grossberg, and Carlson’s disparaging comments about his superiors, as revealed by the Dominion discovery process. A report also claimed the decision came straight from Rupert Murdoch.
Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corporation, weighed in on some of Fox’s decisions in recent months, explaining that the company decided to settle to “avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and multi-year appeal process.”
He also explained viewers should not expect a change in direction at the company.
“There’s no change in programming strategy at Fox News. It’s obviously a successful strategy,” Murdoch said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
The CEO only obliquely referred to Carlson. “As always, we are adjusting our programming and our lineup and that’s what we continue to do,” Murdoch explained.