After being kicked out of Fox News
Tucker Carlson will rush to Twitter in the future
05/10/2023 03:08 am
Fox News doesn’t want Tucker Carlson anymore, but that doesn’t mean the anchor is going to disappear. The right-wing conspiracy theorist announces a new show on Twitter.
Longtime Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was recently kicked out by his network, wants to do a future show on Twitter. “We will shortly be bringing to Twitter a new version of the show that we’ve been making for the past six and a half years,” Carlson announced in a video posted to Twitter. He did not give any details about the project.
Carlson claimed in the roughly three-minute clip that the media were lying and withholding facts on purpose. “There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big thing left in the world is Twitter,” he said.
Fox News surprisingly announced in April that it was separating from 53-year-old Carlson, who had long been the channel’s figurehead. For years, the talk show host moderated a high-rated evening program there, in which he established himself as a loud voice on the far right. He used the program to spread conspiracy theories and false reports and to agitate against minorities.
Fox News did not provide a reason for Carlson’s termination. Observers assume that the expulsion is related to an expensive legal dispute. Fox had spread Donald Trump’s claim that there was massive fraud using voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. The voting machine manufacturer Dominion sued for reputational damage, a lawsuit was averted for payment of over 787 million dollars. Fox would have had a bad hand in the process, among other things, because emails and short messages from Carlson had emerged showing that he himself did not believe the tales of electoral fraud that he was spreading through the channel.
Musk: “Twitter has no deal with Carlson”
The fact that Carlson wants to spread his show via Twitter in the future may have something to do with the new owner of the platform. Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion last October. He always swore to an “absolute freedom of speech” that should exist in the network under his leadership. However, journalists’ accounts have been banned multiple times for alleged violations of Twitter rules, while banned users known for right-wing hate speech have been allowed to return to the platform.
Musk responded to Carlson’s announcement with a tweet in which he pointed out that Twitter users could interact with each other, criticize and refute claims – especially for the latter there is the “Community Notes” function, with which further information can be linked. He also wanted to make it clear “that Tucker is subject to the same rules” as any other Twitter user, and that there was no deal whatsoever with Carlson. Musk concluded his tweet with the words: “I hope that many others, especially on the left, also produce content on this platform.” The entrepreneur has almost 139 million Twitter followers and is known for acting as an amplifier for right-wing political views.