We admit that when we first heard that Tucker Carlson was abruptly taken off the air, we suspected it was somehow related to the Dominion settlement—either it was a term in the settlement, or the settlement resulted in Fox News no longer being willing to work with Mr. Carlson. Thus, what we are hearing today is not actually a total surprise (if it is true):
BREAKING: Carlson was told by a member of the Fox board that he was taken off the air as part of the Dominion settlement, per Tucker's legal teamhttps://t.co/rcFBEH6Xhk
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 9, 2023
The Post Millennial article in turn cites an article from Axios:
🚨Scoop w @mikeallen: Tucker Carlson accuses Fox of fraud, contract breach
—Sources: Carlson told by Fox board member he was ousted as part of Dominion settlement
—Carlson intends to subpoena comms chief Irena Briganti’s cell records, comms w mediahttps://t.co/vwhORdusoA— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) May 9, 2023
That provides several interesting tidbits of information. First, Mr. Carlson’s lawyers are apparently taking an aggressive stance, claiming that while Fox News has a noncompete agreement with Mr. Carlson, Fox News has nullified it. But Axios also says this:
Carlson was told by a member of the Fox board that he was taken off the air as part of the Dominion settlement, two sources briefed on a conversation told Axios.
So, this is from two sources, which is a good start, but neither of them are witnesses to the conversation. In fact, it’s not clear that those two sources heard it from anyone who was a witness to the conversation. Thus, this is at best what lawyers call ‘double hearsay’ or ‘hearsay within hearsay.’ This doesn’t fill us with confidence that this is true.
It is also seemingly contradicted by two other sources:
A Fox News spokesperson said it is ‘categorically false’ that Carlson lost his job as part of the network’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Stephen Shackelford, an outside attorney for Dominion, told Axios’ Dan Primack: ‘Dominion did not insist on them firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement.’
However, let’s break that down some more. First, the premise of the story is that Mr. Carlson is still under contract, but not allowed to go on air just like Megyn Kelly claimed (therefore, Axios is supporting her reporting). But then Axios says that the Fox News spokesperson denies ‘that Carlson lost his job’ as part of the settlement. However, according to Axios and Ms. Kelly’s reporting, Mr. Carlson arguably hasn’t lost his job at all. He just isn’t allowed to go on air. But he’s still getting paid by Fox. So the ’denial’ by the Fox News spokesperson might not even be technically a denial.
Meanwhile, Mr. Shackelford’s claim that ‘Dominion did not insist’ on Mr. Carlson being fired as part of the settlement’ might not technically be a denial, either. First, saying they ‘did not insist’ on it is a little different than saying it was not part of the agreement. Second, once again, Axios and Ms. Kelly don’t believe he has been fired, just taken off the air.
So are either of these denials really denials? We don’t know. Judge for yourself.
Naturally, there were many reactions to this reporting:
.@timcast cites reporting from The Post Millennial about how Tucker Carlson was told by a member of the Fox board that he was taken off the air as part of the Dominion settlement.
Read more: https://t.co/JCDQ4eaM16 pic.twitter.com/gxHAE3T7fx
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 10, 2023
In an attempt to shut him up, they inadvertently made him more popular than ever by increasing his reach on Twitter by 60X, which is owned by a guy who is a champion of free speech! That didn't go as planned for the people at Dominion! #Karma #backfired #TruthAtAllCosts
— Shane Wold (@ShaneWold24) May 10, 2023
We don’t think the term ‘Streisand Effect’ quite applies here, but its certainly a similar phenomenon.
Under the old Twitter 1.0 regime @TuckerCarlson would not be welcome on the platform. Under @elonmusk's Twitter 2.0 even @donlemon is free to launch his new show. This is the way. https://t.co/P79GUgHl3R pic.twitter.com/DxaWchVdn8
— @amuse (@amuse) May 9, 2023
We ain’t holding our breath on Don Lemon having a successful show on Twitter.
Oh look another conspiracy yesterday is today’s fact.🚩
— drew beep/bop/boop 💙🖤 (@DrewLGB84) May 9, 2023
— #FreeAlexJones#FreeAssange (@VegastoTN) May 9, 2023
Starts singing the ‘Free Bird,’ otherwise known as the national anthem of the modern South.
Alex Bruesewitz, who has a weird fetish for reaching to make every story somehow pro-Trump or anti-DeSantis said this:
BREAKING: @TuckerCarlson was told by a member of the Fox board that he was taken off the air as part of the Dominion settlement, per Tucker's legal team
It’s also important to remember that DeSantis hosted & praised Dominion’s lawyer a couple months ago.https://t.co/GA0xm9ZJpS
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) May 9, 2023
Lawyers work for clients, Alex, and good ones put aside whatever agendas they have and work for the agendas of their clients.
Also this reply to Bruesewitz is chef’s kiss:
“BREAKING: Hitler was known to breathe oxygen, Ron DeSantis ALSO BREATHES OXYGEN!!!!”
— its me (@JonJudd) May 9, 2023
Some also noted how strange it was that Mr. Carlson might’ve been singled out and how that might reflect on Dominion:
Why? He barely spent any time talking about the machines.
— Doug W 🎸 @ Return to 🐦 Tour (@VoiceOfDougW) May 9, 2023
Okay, but I’m not sure why that would be part of the settlement considering he called Powell out on his show 2 weeks after the election?https://t.co/vAnlBB9JTK
— Muddbone (@muddbone_n) May 10, 2023
Certainly, if this was part of the settlement, it shows a certain bias that doesn’t reflect well on the company:
If this is true, this is proof that Dominion is pro Democrat. https://t.co/XISUZjj0dc
— Maximvs (@MaximvsMeridius) May 10, 2023
So if this is true, Dominion voting systems negotiated getting the #1 conservative voice off of Fox News as part of their settlement and we are supposed to now trust them with our elections
— Jason 🙆♂️🙌🙏🙆♂️ (@jedouard76) May 9, 2023
Certainly, if Dominion made taking Mr. Carlson off the air part of the settlement, then this is likely to increase paranoia about Dominion, rather than tamping it down. These next two tweets illustrate this point well:
Dominion rigged our political system and now it's rigging cable news. https://t.co/vnxIXCydaV
— Nathan Norman (@CitizenNorman) May 9, 2023
So the effort to silence Tucker is going to backfire big time and Tucker should go full throttle on Dominion now! https://t.co/2Hc08XPe2C
— Dave Stew (@davelz) May 9, 2023
As is often the case, we don’t include these tweets because we necessarily agree with them, but because they are interesting in some way—in this case because they illustrate how the claim that Dominion was behind the dismissal of Mr. Carlson is likely to fuel suspicion of Dominion.
If Mr. Carlson was told Dominion was behind Fox News’ decision to take him off the air, will this be more likely or less likely to encourage Mr. Carlson to go after Dominion, especially if he carries through on his announcement to start a show on Twitter? Only time will tell.
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