Sources say former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is gearing up to push the outlet into letting him continue his career elsewhere.
Lawyer Bryan Freedman, whom Carlson retained for the contract dispute, said the notion Carlson’s voice would be silenced was “beyond preposterous,” Axios reported Sunday.
A man walks past the News Corp. and Fox News headquarters on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
The outlet said Fox hopes to sideline Carlson by offering him $20 million a year not to work, adding he is “busy plotting a media empire of his own. But he needs Fox to let him out of his contract, which expires in January 2025 — after the presidential election.”
“Axios has learned that Carlson and Elon Musk had a conversation about working together, but didn’t discuss specifics,” the outlet reported.
In April, Fox announced it was parting ways with Carlson who previously hosted the popular show, Tucker Carlson Tonight. The decision came as a surprise, according to Breitbart News.
Meanwhile, the outlet reported Wednesday that ratings had plummeted after Carlson left the network.
Tucker Carlson during 2022 FOX Nation Patriot Awards at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood on November 17, 2022, in Hollywood, Florida. (Jason Koerner/Getty Images)
“During its 8 p.m. hour, the network has dropped from a three million viewer average to a 1.65 million viewer average since the departure of Tucker Carlson; the hour was previously filled by Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, which will then be filled by Fox News personality Lawrence Jones,” the article read.
In a video posted after his departure, Carlson said that one thing he noticed after taking time off was how “unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” calling them “completely irrelevant.”
“And yet at the same time, the undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all. War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources. When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues?” he asked:
Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023
“Debates like that are not permitted in American media,” he stated. However, Carlson closed his message on a hopeful note.
“When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful,” he said, ending with, “See you soon.”
Meanwhile, Breitbart News’s Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle said during a recent interview on Newsmax that Fox’s efforts to silence Carlson was driving people away, according to the outlet:
“They’re not allowing him to go out there and do something else. They refuse to release him from the contract and negotiate an exit at this time. The Murdoch family is trying to keep him silent,” Boyle said, explaining that the globalist, establishment Murdoch family and their allies “were getting increasingly unnerved by the third rail topics that Tucker was regularly hitting on his show,” including topics such as the vaccine and aid to Ukraine.
WATCH: Breitbart’s Boyle on Newsmax: Leaks and Smears Against Tucker Carlson Driving Viewers Away from Fox News to Breitbart and Newsmax:
Boyle said Carlson’s reporting on such topics was “rocking the boat and they didn’t like that.” Fox executives are now using the Dominion lawsuit settlement as a way to justify regaining control of the network, Boyle noted.
“What’s happening is people are leaving Fox. They’re coming to places like Newsmax and Breitbart, which is great for us,” he explained.
Per the Axios article, a friend of Carlson’s reportedly said, “Now, we’re going from peacetime to Defcon 1. His team is preparing for war. He wants his freedom.”
