It was a joke. The assumption being that he was beholden to the media. If you want to take it seriously, you can say that Fox or any other network can buy L&O rights to re-run the shows, but specify shows where he doesn’t appear — thus depriving him of income.
But again, it was a joke.
Oh, I see. You meant that Fred was possibly beholding to the major TV networks. Because they have the power to say whether or not L&O would be shown, thus determining Fred’s income from the residuals.
Whew! I guess you are saying that Fred is taking a chance of alienating the networks. But I don’t know what that has to do with Fred’s refusal to allow the media to control his interviews. But maybe it makes sense to you.