FOX News has reportedly sent its former star host Tucker Carlson a ‘cease-and-desist’ letter for creating a competing Twitter series, the latest move in a potential legal showdown.
Carlson was suddenly ousted from his network show on April 23, with no official reason given for why the company parted with their most-watched anchor.
In the aftermath, the newscaster announced he would start his own show on Twitter, releasing his first two episodes last week — drawing a combined 169 million views.
But FOX continued to pay Carlson, and maintains a contract that stipulates he must keep content exclusive to the network through December 31, 2024.
The network sent an official correspondence to Carlson’s legal team last week claiming the newscaster was ‘in breach’ of his contract and threatened to sue.
The network has now escalated that threat, Axios reports, by sending a cease-and-desist letter.
Carlson’s lawyers, though, argued any legal action by FOX would be a direct violation of their client’s First Amendment rights, as the newscaster is said to be looking for a way out of a $20million-a-year contract with the company.
FOX News executives have reportedly sent its former star host Tucker Carlson a cease-and-desist letter for creating a competing Twitter series
FOX continues to maintain Carlson’s contract through December 31, 2024. It stipulates that he must keep content exclusive to the network
FOX executives had previously sent Carlson’s lawyers a letter saying he was ‘in breach’ of the contract and threatened to sue
In a statement to Axios, Carlson’s lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon said: ‘FOX News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations.
‘Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, FOX is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election.
‘Tucker will not be silenced by anyone… He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so.’
After the news broke about the cease-and-desist letter, she also wrote on Twitter: ‘My friend and client [Tucker Carlson] will not be silenced — by the far left or by FOX News.’
See also Urgent search for cruise ship passenger feared to have fallen overboard near Sydney Harbour
She went on to slam the network, asking: ‘For all the members of Congress, culture warriors, ‘influencers, GOP officials — do you really want to air your views on a network that spits on its viewers, leaks [opposition] on its own talent, and even threatens former talent for speaking, for free, on Twitter?! You have free will!’
She claimed her representation of Carlson was preventing her from appearing on the network.
‘For all the friends who have been asking “Why don’t we see you on FOX anymore?” This is why.
‘I am passionately committed to free speech and a free flow of information necessary for a free society,’ Dhillon continued.
‘Until FOX stops trying to silence Tucker, it’s not a place for me. And I feel for my friends working at the network, which has clearly caved into pressure from some quarter to silence.
‘What you are seeing on FOX today is a censored version of the news,’ she claimed. ‘Keep that in mind as you make your viewing and your commenting choices.’
Carlson’s lawyer Harmeet Dhillon took to Twitter to slam the cease-and-desist order
Carlson’s lawyers have also argued the network breached the contract by suddenly canceling his show without notice — and it is therefore null and void.
In a separate statement last week, Carlson’s other attorney, Bryan Freedman, accused network brass of engaging in hypocrisy by silencing Carlson, pointing to how the company claims to ‘defend its very existence on freedom of speech grounds.’
‘Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events,’ Freedman wrote in the letter viewed by Axios.
He reportedly added: ‘This evening we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes.’
Quoting Carlson’s contract, the letter continues: ‘Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox.’
It added Carlson’s contract says he is ‘prohibited from rendering services of any type whatsoever, whether ‘over the internet via streaming or similar distribution, or other digital distribution whether now known or hereafter devised.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to FOX News for comment.
Tucker Carlson was the most-watched man on cable news until his abrupt firing in April
Elon Musk warmly welcomed the first episode of the ex Fox News Anchor’s show on Twitter
But before FOX executives threatened legal action, Carlson’s lawyers, themselves, sent a letter to network brass arguing the star newscaster should not be bound by the non-compete clause and threatening legal action against the company.
It was sent by Freedman, to FOX officials Viet Dinh, the company’s chief legal officer, and Irena Briganti, the head of corporate communications.
It claimed that FOX employees, including ‘Rupert Murdoch himself,’ broke promises to Carlson ‘intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth,’ Axios reported.
The lawyers reportedly accused FOX executives, believed to be Dinh and Murdoch, of making ‘material representations’ to Carlson that were intentionally broken, constituting fraud.
The letter also claimed that Fox the network broke a promise not to leak Carlson’s private messages. And it alleged that FOX broke promises not to settle with Dominion Voting Systems ‘in a way which would indicate wrongdoing’ on the part of Carlson, and backtracked on a deal not to do anything in a settlement that would harm Carlson’s reputation.
The letter stated: ‘These actions not only breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the Agreement, but give rise to claims for breach of contract, and intentional and negligent misrepresentation.’
Carlson claims in the letter that Briganti attempted to ‘undermine, embarrass, and interfere’ with Carlson’s future business prospects, which he maintains would constitute another breach of his employment contract.
‘Make no mistake, we intend to subpoena Ms. Briganti’s cell phone records and related documents, which evidence communications with her and all media, including, but not limited to The New York Times,’ the letter said.
They also indicated legal action would soon be filed.
Fox News must take immediate steps ‘to preserve all existing documents and data’ relevant to Fox’s relationship with Carlson, including correspondence between top executives and several media outlets.
A Fox News spokesperson said it is ‘categorically false’ that Carlson lost his job as part of the network’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Stephen Shackelford, an outside attorney for Dominion, told Axios’ Dan Primack: ‘Dominion did not insist on them firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement.’
Carlson was unceremoniously ousted from his network show on April 23 , with no official reason given for why the company let their most-watched anchor go. The Murdoch family, which owns the network, is pictured here in 2014
Carlson released the first two episodes of his much anticipated 10-minute Twitter show last week.
The first episode, which appeared next to a ‘Tucker on Twitter’ logo, had reached 199k retweets, 657k likes and 81 million views, with some saying that by the time they finished watching the number of views had already increased by a million.
For comparison, ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ on Fox News, which was the most-watched cable news show, received an average of 3.1 million viewers each weeknight during the weeks leading up to his shock firing.
Twitter owner Elon Musk was quick to praise the 54-year old former TV anchor: ‘Would be great to have shows from all parts of the political spectrum on this platform!’ he wrote while retweeting Carlson’s first episode.
He added he had not signed a deal with Carlson, hours after the fired Fox News host revealed he is relaunching his hit show on Twitter – with the ensuing 10-minute production boasting a visibly bare-bones budget.
And when Carlson announced his plans to start a Twitter show in May, Musk emphasized that he had not struck any kind of business deal with the newscaster.
