Fox Must Stop Its War Against Tucker – The American Spectator

On Jun 9, 2023

Tucker is back.

Here he is at his new home on Twitter, his show appropriately titled Tucker on Twitter:

Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023

A mere two days after Tucker on Twitter made its debut, the Guardian was reporting:

By Thursday morning, the inaugural Tucker on Twitter episode had been viewed more than 102m times.

And in a blink, here was this headline over there at Axios:

Scoop: Fox News says Tucker Carlson breached his contract

Reporters Sara Fischer and Mike Allen told us this:

Fox News Wednesday notified Tucker Carlson’s lawyers that the former prime-time anchor violated his contract with the network when he launched his own Twitter show on Tuesday, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: A breach of contract claim sets Fox News up to explore potential legal action against Carlson, a move that would intensify the already thorny public battle between the two parties.

Carlson’s lawyers told Axios that any legal action by Fox would violate his First Amendment rights.

“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. 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,” said Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, in a statement to Axios.”

Freeman is referring to Fox’s legal showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, in which Fox argued that the voting-machine company’s lawsuit was “a profound threat to the First Amendment, and it should be rejected in its entirety.”

So what Dominion did in suing Fox was “a profound threat to the First Amendment” — but now Fox has turned on a dime and sues Tucker to silence his new Twitter show? Really? Really?

Amazing.

Look. Fox stepped in it big time by firing Tucker in the first place. His show was number one, he had a mammoth following, and, in what appears to be a seriously bad case of office politics, he was abruptly fired.

And Fox has paid a severe price for it. The Hollywood Reporter noted in May — speaking of the 8:00 p.m. EST time slot in which Tucker’s show appeared — that “FNC’s ratings in the hour have plummeted since Carlson’s departure.”

Now it would seem crystal clear the best thing Fox can do for itself is to … stop. Stop, stop, stop! Move on! Going after Tucker Carlson in this fashion hurts — Fox. Not Tucker. When he manages to attract over 1 million views in a mere two days after his new show debuts, there is a message there. Just as there was a message from the drastic drop-off in ratings for that Fox hour where Tucker was once to be found.

Not unlike the episodes surrounding the missteps of Bud Light and Target, Fox too is getting dangerously close to permanently damaging its own brand. (READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Would Target Sell ‘Hetero Pride’ Shirts?)

Yes, full disclosure, I am a Newsmax contributor. And at 8 p.m., I am tuned in to Newsmax’s terrific show The Balance with host Eric Bolling.

But there comes a moment when it is time to consider the effect of all this get-Tucker craziness on the larger conservative movement. It doesn’t hurt Tucker — in fact, as with all the attempts to target former President Donald Trump, it helps Tucker. As his viewing numbers for his new Twitter show demonstrates vividly.

But this kind of obsessive craziness is not helpful to the larger conservative movement.

History records that in 1940, as dissatisfaction with then–Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s conduct of the war with Germany built up in Britain and notably in the British Parliament, a member of Parliament from Chamberlain’s own Conservative Party named Leo Amery rose to say this to Chamberlain:

You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.

The suggestion in this corner to Fox and its obsessive war against Tucker Carlson is along the same lines. That would be:

You have obsessed over Tucker Carlson too long for any good you have been doing. Stop, and let the conservative movement move on. In the name of God, stop.