Tucker Carlson will be taking his talk show and other content to Twitter.
In a three-minute video posted Tuesday, the former Fox News Channel star host praised Twitter and decried the stranglehold over the national conversation held by legacy media outlets.
We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023
“Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter is not a partisan site, everybody’s allowed here. We think that’s a good thing,” he said.
“Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six-and-a-half years to Twitter,” he continued. “We’ll be bringing some other things too, which we’ll tell you about, but for now we’re just grateful to be here.”
Describing his reason for moving to Twitter, Mr. Carlson said that it’s too simple to say, as many people do, that “the news is full of lies.”
“In the most literal sense,” the data presented in mainstream media reports is accurate but serves “a lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind. Facts have been withheld on purpose, along with proportion and perspective.”
This happens in the mainstream media, “in every story that matters, every day of the week, every week of the year,” he said.
Hence, Twitter.
“Speech is the fundamental prerequisite for democracy. That’s why it’s enshrined in the First of our constitutional amendments. Amazingly as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world, the only one is Twitter — where we are now,” he said.
Mr. Carlson did not directly speak in the video about his abrupt parting from Fox News on April 24 but clearly alluded to it using the word “fired.”
“The best you can hope for in the news business at this point is the freedom to tell the fullest truth that you can. But there are always limits,” Mr. Carlson said. “You know that if you bump up against those limits often enough, you will be fired for it. That’s not a guess, that’s guaranteed.”
Mr. Carlson offered no specific details about what he planned to do on Twitter, but it has at last the potential to set up a legal fight with Fox News. TV companies include a no-competition clause when a host leaves the air.
But according to a report in Axios on Tuesday, Mr. Carlson’s lawyers sent a letter to Fox accusing the network of fraud and breach of contract.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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