Posted on 06/12/2023 10:01:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tucker Carlson published two video tweets that, combined, garnered over 170 million views, far exceeding his Fox News audience. Fox News has taken notice of these videos and has sent a “cease and desist” letter to Tucker. I haven’t seen Tucker’s contract with Fox or the “cease and desist” letter, but my lawyer’s instinct is that Fox does not have a strong case.
Axios first reported news about the letter:
Fox News has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tucker Carlson as he ramps up a competing series on Twitter that drew a combined 169 million views for its first two episodes, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The contract battle between Fox and its former top host — who was taken off the air in April, after the network's historic Dominion settlement — has mighty repercussions for the conservative media ecosystem.
- With "Tucker on Twitter," Carlson and his growing production team are working to elevate Elon Musk's social media site as a news platform.
Details: The cease-and-desist letter has "NOT FOR PUBLICATION" in bold at the top. [Note: This means that Axios has seen the letter.]
What's happening: Fox is continuing to pay Carlson, and maintains that his contract keeps his content exclusive to Fox through Dec. 31, 2024.
- Carlson is making a First Amendment argument for posting on Twitter, and asserts that Fox has committed material breaches of his contract.
Harmeet Dillon, who has often appeared on Tucker’s Fox News show, and who currently represents Tucker, is unimpressed:
My friend and client @TuckerCarlson will not be silenced — by the far left or by Fox News. Scoop: Fox sends Tucker Carlson cease-and-desist letter https://t.co/1vUCMoQXOa — Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) June 12, 2023
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Because, Blackrock, which forced the settlement, wanted Tucker silenced. They can’t steal an election and overthrow a country if they’re outed by a popular news personality.
Nope, you are wrong, first amendment applies to all, corporations, government and people, no onw can impose a first amendment restriction blanketly on you.
This would be the same as saying you can enter a bond servant contract between 2 private citizens. As long as Tucker provides content in a publics sphere and not for a competitor he has first amendment protections
As my daughter actually practices contract law I can assure you that is how it works, we have discussed this at length.
Possibly in the contract but definitely a legal issue that needs to be argued in front of a court. Not a simple issue by any stretch.
(Tucker turned against us, made his deal with the devil)
Elaborate in specifics what you mean!
“ Actually I think the receiving of payments is not relevant to the legal issue.”
That’s right.
Impossible to comment on this without knowing the details of the contract.
Presumably it’s a non-compete clause and the question is does doing Twitter posts constitute competing?
But it’s speculation.
Exactly!
As of yet, his twitter posts are the equivalent of him standing on a street corner talking.
Even when/if he makes it subscription, no company, no advertisers, it’s like the people on the street corner throwing money to him. Private citizen to private citizen.
Yes, this.
Might one foresee a court victory followed by a record-setting lawsuit against Fox by Tucker?
I'll wager yes.
“””Who cares?
Tucker turned against us...”””
It sure would be nice if you provided some specifics so the less informed would be on the same page as you.
I am waiting to read how Tucker turned against us.
Some people are still upset that fox personalities didn’t jump up and yell election fraud on Nov 3rd 2020.
I’ve watched Tucker enough to know he knows 2020 was stolen. As soon as Mollie Hemingway came out with her book Rigged, he had her on for an hour. He also had that special master from WI on for an hour. He’s since made many remarks about Biden getting 81 million votes, as in, yeah right(and dripping with sarcasm or his classic chuckle)
Now does he believe in some server in Germany and “the packets”? No
He just knows what obvious things happened to change the outcome. Early - mail in ballots, Zuckerberg money and people installed, Biden crimes covered up. Pretty sure he had that trucker on that had his USPS 18 wheeler full of ballots stolen.
That’s not enough though. Some people think all of fox should have risked their careers and hooted and hollered like Mike Lindell.
I can’t get the link to open.
FOX is a bunch of far-left, woked up, LOSERS. Carlson needs to sue their asses for firing him.
Is fox sending (tweeting) cease and desist letters to Hannity and Ingraham?
I remember Uncle Lar when he and Lil Tommy Edwards did “Animal Stories” on WLS. The highlight of my day!
While I agree with yours statement on Fox, Murdoch, and Dominion, Tucker has been a straight shooter for the past couple of years.
It’s 31, two posts up from this one of yours, 33 on this page
I guess you’re a lawyer - today. Not a very good one though.
Mind explaining to everyone how Fox personalities all have Twitter accounts and blather their views around all over the internet... and radio, and TV.
Can they stop Tucker from political rants on Subway cars too?
These are rhetorical questions - because you actually have no idea WTF you’re talking about.
This is an issue with several implications.
I'm not sure that Twitter can be considered a competitor. There has been a lot of discussion as to whether social media platforms are content providers, or simply avenues to show the content provided by its' users. This was how the whole editorial and fact-checking controversy has entered into the public conversation. I think the social media providers do not want to be responsible for the content because it then opens them up for defamation and libel charges made by users. And monitoring hundreds of millions of posts would be problematic at the very least.
If Tucker doesn't back down (which I think he might), the case will be very interesting. The threat of being sued for a large amount of money has got to be at least a little intimidating to Carlson. Unless Twitter and Elon Musk are willing to stand behind him, he is taking a big risk to continue releasing his videos.
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