By Wes Walker,
There’s no way around it. Tucker made a BIG splash when he released his 10-minute video on Twitter this week. His FANS may have loved it, but his old employer wasn’t happy. Not one bit.
For anyone who may have spent the last couple of days in Hunter’s now-infamous sensory deprivation tank or the dark side of the moon and somehow missed it, Tucker showed up on Twitter this week with a video that put up some BIG numbers.
ClashDaily covered it here if you somehow missed it and need to get up to speed: WATCH: Tucker Carlson’s New Twitter Show Just Dropped.
In a world where everything is unreal hyperbole, what do we mean by ‘big numbers’? Here’s a screenshot of the number of people who have viewed it.
Any of those metrics are dizzying. But we’ve circled the one most relevant for this conversation.
Do you remember what TV ratings are like? Here’s something relatively recent that popped up in a quick web search.
Since TV and Twitter are very different communication tools, these stats are by no means a fair apples-to-apples comparison, but at least it’s a helpful reference point.
There’s a creepy parallel to the drama you see among high schoolers dating. A girl breaks up with a guy and is upset that he has started dating someone else. Tucker got axed. He moved on.
It doesn’t matter if Fox is the one that dumped him. They’re upset about him moving on.
Axios is reporting that the legal team from Fox News sent him angry letters after his show on Twitter. They are claiming he is in breach of contract.
“Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s‘ services shall be completely exclusive to Fox,'” the network’s general counsel Bernar Gugar wrote, according to the letter seen by Axios. — BusinessInsider
Tucker, who is already in a legal battle with Fox — in a strange twist of irony, he and Don Lemon have both hired the same legal firm at the same time over their respective firings — is not backing down.
First, he has already asserted that Fox News is in breach of their contract, which would obviously impact their claims that he is in breach. But there’s another reason.
By the way, it’s described in reporting; the language in the contract seems to stipulate a prohibition of offering services for some other company. Strictly speaking, he isn’t working or offering services to anybody.
Tucker is just like any other content creator out there. He’s using the internet to build an audience. He’s better at it than any news networks want him to be. Maybe it has something to do with the fact viewers actually LIKE him.
His popularity might explain why our exclusive Tucker Carlson 2024 shirts (Trump/Carlson and DeSantis/Carlson) have been flying off the shelves. (And some similar Tucker shirts.)
His legal counsel’s quick reply to FoxNews is on-brand for Tucker.
“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,” Bryan Freedman, Carlson’s attorney, told Axios. “Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events.” — Business Insider.
Ouch.
That’s hitting them where it hurts.
FoxNews had best tread carefully here.
If they pick a public fight with Tucker, there’s much at stake. The public likes Tucker much more than Fox News Corp.
There is already some indication that Fox is in the process of BudLighting itself. (And have you noticed all those BlackRock ads?)
The last thing Fox execs should want is to accelerate the process of alienating their core audience.
Coss-posted with Clash Daily
