Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to relaunch show on Twitter
Conservative commentator takes on the mainstream media in a clip announcing the “new version” of his top-rated show.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has announced that he will be bringing a “new version” of his top-rated show to Twitter.
Carlson made the announcement in a clip on Twitter in which he railed against the American mainstream media and praised the social media site as the last remaining major platform that allows free speech.
“At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie, a lie of the most inconspicuous and insidious kind,” Carlson said in a three-minute clip posted Tuesday that has been viewed more than five million times.
“Facts have been deliberately withheld, along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated.”
Carlson, the most-watched host on Fox News until his impeachment last month, said mainstream media organizations were “thinly designed propaganda outlets” and journalists who violated the “boundaries” imposed on them risked being fired.
“The rule of what you can’t say is everything. It’s really filthy and it’s utterly corrupting,” Carlson said. “You can’t have a free society if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true. Speech is the fundamental condition of democracy.”
The conservative commentator said he would relaunch his show and “a number of other things” on Twitter soon.
As the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carslon became the biggest name in cable news, regularly drawing over 3 million nightly viewers with a combative style that took aim at targets ranging from liberal politicians to LGBTQ activists and the CIA.
Although Carlslon’s show was extremely popular among conservatives, it was criticized and boycotted by advertisers for its perceived racist and sexist content.
Carlson was fired by Fox News last month in the wake of the $787.5 million payout to Dominion Voting Systems for falsely accusing the company of rigging the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
US media outlets have offered a range of explanations for Carlson’s outster, including an ongoing sex discrimination lawsuit by an ex-producer and racially charged text messages to staff.
Carlson’s decision to relaunch his show on Twitter comes weeks after he interviewed the site’s owner, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on his show.
Musk, a self-described freedom of speech absolutist and critic of liberal bias on Twitter, has made it easier for right-wing voices to spread on the platform since buying the company for $44 billion last year.
Musk said Tuesday that Twitter had not signed a “deal of any kind” with Carlson.
“Tucker is subject to the same rules and rewards as all content creators,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
Musk added that he hoped other content creators, “particularly from the left,” would also make Twitter their home.