Tucker Carlson is back – on Twitter.
The appropriate-wing TV personality said in a video his Twitter feed on Tuesday that it’s relaunching its show on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. Carlson was abruptly fired from his prime-time position at Fox News just a few weeks ago, shortly after the station paid a settlement to Dominion Voting Systems in a libel lawsuit.
In the three-minute video, Carlson – who has worked for CNN, MSNBC and Fox News – criticized the mainstream media for allegedly lying to the public. He told viewers, “You are being manipulated.” Carlson also said that Twitter just isn’t partisan.
“Strangely, as of today, there aren’t any more platforms that allow free speech. The last major platform left in the world, the just one, is Twitter, which we’re on at once,” Carlson said in Tuesday’s video. “Twitter has long served as a spot where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter just isn’t a partisan site, everyone has access here, and we predict that is a great thing.”
A Fox representative didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. A Twitter spokesperson responded with a poop emoji on Tuesday when asked for comment.
“On this platform, unlike a one-way broadcast street, people can interact, critique and refute anything he or anyone else may say” – Musk tweeted on Tuesday. He added: “We’ve got not signed any contract. Tucker is subject to the same rules and rewards as all content creators.”
“I hope many others, especially on the left, will also decide to be content creators on this platform,” Musk wrote in a tweet.
Carlson’s move to Twitter comes as former President Donald Trump is running again in the 2024 election. In the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s 2020 overcome Trump, each the media and social media platforms are battling the spread of false claims about the latest election .
Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle Dominion’s libel lawsuit that the network and its hosts were spreading false claims about the election. Fox is facing an identical lawsuit with voting machine technology company Smartmatic USA.
Carlson has not publicly addressed his dismissal from Fox News, although he broke his silence days after being fired from the network, also in a video posted on his Twitter feed. “When you will have some free time you realize how incredibly silly the debates you see on TV are, they’re completely irrelevant,” he said during his April 26 video.
Various media reports have since surfaced saying that Carlson’s text messages, including a racist remark about how “white people” were fighting, sealed his fate at Fox. The lyrics were discovered during the Dominion defamation case discovery process.
In recent days, media reports have leaked unedited pieces of evidence from the Dominion lawsuit, which also said that Carlson had pressured the network to let him find his own platform. Carlson was apparently in a contract dispute with Fox, which is anticipated to last until 2025, and has reportedly been in talks with Musk.
Carlson’s last show on Fox aired on Friday, April 21. The next Monday, Fox said in a press release: “FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and before that as a contributor.”
Fox saw a decline in prime time viewership since Carlson’s departure, although top advertisers returned to the network’s timeslot. Carlson’s show was certainly one of cable’s highest-rated segments. Fox continues to assert to be the top-rated cable news network, as noted by CEO Lachlan Murdoch in an earnings call with investors on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, much smaller networks resembling Newsmax have seen a surge in viewership since Carlson disappeared from Fox’s airplay, in response to Nielsen rankings.
In his final week at Fox News, Carlson hosted Musk on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
During the interview, which aired over two nights, Carlson asked Musk if he thought Twitter would matter as much in future elections because it did with Trump. “I feel he will play a major role in the election, not only national but international,” Musk told Carlson.
Meanwhile, CNN Warner Bros. Discovery will host a live stream from City Hall with Trump. The network has vowed to carry Trump accountable, with CEO David Zaslav saying that as a Republican leader, Trump must be on the air.
– Lora Kolodny of CNBC contributed to this text.