Tucker Carlson plans to relaunch his Twitter show after being fired from Fox, telling followers they are “manipulated” by TV news and that Elon Musk’s social media site is the last major remaining platform that “allows freedom of speech”.
In a three-minute video on his Twitter page, Carlson announced that a new version of the show would be “starting shortly,” but gave no further details.
“At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie,” Carlson said in a tirade against US media. “You have been manipulated.”
Alluding to his abrupt exit from Foxhe warned that journalists face limitations in established media groups and that violating them too often leads to “firing”.
Carlson was fallen by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News network two weeks ago in a move that shocked US media circles. The host was among the most watched personalities on US television, attracting more than 3 million viewers to his show, Tucker Carlson tonight.
The Twitter video posted on Tuesday is from Carlson second broadside against US media in as many weeks.
He said: “What is it like to work in such a system? After more than 30 years in between, we could tell you some stories. The best you could hope for in the news world at this point is the freedom to tell the fullest truth you can.
“But there are always limits. And you know that if you run into those limits often enough, you will get fired for it.
Carlson’s exit from Fox followed the network’s settlement of a $787.5 million deal with voting machine maker Dominion, after the network broadcast live statements falsely claiming its devices they had been rigged to cast votes for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
“For the most part, the news stories you see being analyzed on Twitter come from media organizations that are themselves thinly disguised means of propaganda. You see it on the cable news, you talk about it on Twitter,” Carlson said of his decision to take his show to the social network.
Fox fired Carlson in part because of private messages he had sent, which have been made public in legal filings in recent months, according to people briefed on his exit.
Public legal filings connected to the Dominion case showed Carlson criticizing Fox management for calling the state of Arizona for Biden on election night ahead of rival networks.
According to the documents, Carlson sent a message to his producer in early November 2020: “Do executives understand how much credibility and trust we have lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire, really. . . an alternative like Newsmax could be devastating for us.”
Musk, a self-declared free speech absolutist, has relaxed content moderation on Twitter since buying the platform for $44 billion last October, earning the admiration of some conservative figures including Carlson.
Carlson conducted an exclusive two-part friendly interview with Musk on Fox News last month, where they discussed topics including Twitter, artificial intelligence, and aliens.
Musk has been trying to woo creators with new features to help them make money off the platform, after several high-profile users walked away from his moderation policies.
In a Tuesday tweet following Carlson’s announcement, Musk said he wanted “to be clear that we have not signed an agreement of any kind,” adding, “Tucker is subject to the same rules and rewards as all content creators.”
He noted that these “rewards” will include any revenue from direct subscriptions through the platform, as well as an upcoming ad revenue sharing feature.
“On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcasting, people are able to interact, criticize and refute whatever is being said,” he said.
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