Fox News has sent Tucker Carlson a letter telling him he’s in breach of his contract which opens the door to a lawsuit. But Carlson believes he’s just exercising his first amendment rights to express his opinion on current events:
“Carlson was told by a senior Fox executive that the network's goal is to keep him sidelined until 2025.”
Fox News says Tucker Carlson breached his contract https://t.co/f5Te8BfidB
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) June 7, 2023
Here’s more via Axios:
Fox News Wednesday notified Tucker Carlson’s lawyers that the former prime-time anchor violated his contract with the network when he launched his own Twitter show on Tuesday, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.
A breach of contract claim sets Fox News up to explore potential legal action against Carlson, a move that would intensify the already thorny public battle between the two parties.
Carlson’s lawyers told Axios that any legal action by Fox would violate his First Amendment rights.
“Fox defends 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,” said Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, in a statement to Axios.
What Fox News is saying:
Shortly after Carlson posted the first episode of his new show on Twitter Tuesday evening, Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar sent a letter to Carlson’s lawyers saying Carlson “is in breach” of his contract agreement.
“In connection with such breach and pursuant to the Agreement, Fox expressly reserves all rights and remedies which are available to it at law or equity.”
The letter refers to Carlson’s contract, which was originally signed on November 8, 2019 and amended on February 16, 2021.
“This evening we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes,” the letter read.
“Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox,'” it continues, quoting Carlson’s contract.
It adds that 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.'”
What Carlson’s legal team is saying:
Carlson’s legal team, according to a source familiar with its thinking, objects to the network’s effort to block Carlson’s Twitter appearances because, they believe, Twitter is not directly competitive with Fox News.
It is true that Carlson’s monologue didn’t have any bells and whistles like an opening intro or even a splash screen. It didn’t even have a title, though it was branded as ‘Tucker Carlson on Twitter’. And it didn’t appear to be on behalf of anyone but himself.
It will be interesting to see if he can prevail at this dispute, which may quickly turn into a lawsuit.