Fox News Hits Tucker Carlson With ‘Cease and Desist’ Letter After Latest Episode of Twitter Show

Matt Webb Mitovich

Fox News has sent Tucker Carlson a cease and desist letter, days after the second installment of Tucker on Twitter (do we italicize Twitter “show” titles?) hit the social media app.

Fox News, since it continues to pay Carlson after removing him from the airwaves, claims exclusive dibs on his content. Carlson’s lawyers, meanwhile, have asserted his First Amendment right to free speech.

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“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,” Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a previous statement to Axios, which was first to report on the cease and desist letter. “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.”

This Tuesday’s third “episode” of Tucker on Twitter reportedly will focus on Carlson’s response to the (latest) indictment of President Donald Trump.

Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who represents Carlson with Freedman, said in a statement to Axios, “Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election. Tucker will not be silenced by anyone…. He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so.”

News of Carlson’s ouster from Fox News broke on April 24, with the cabler saying in a statement, “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

Carlson’s exit came in the wake of Fox News Channel reaching a settlement in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, just as their much-publicized trial was about to get underway. Dominion claimed it was owed damages resulting from Fox News’ airing of false claims about its role in the 2020 election. In the past few months, emails and texts gathered for the trial from Fox executives and anchors — Carlson and Sean Hannity included — hinted that people working at the company knowingly put forth false information about the election and Dominion’s involvement in it.

Justin Nelson, an attorney representing Dominion, said the case was settled for $787.5 million.

Weeks after losing his Fox News perch, Carlson said in a three-and-a-half minute Twitter video that the show he had hosted for six-and-a-half years would continue on via the social media platform.

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