Let’s talk a little bit about the firing of Tucker Carlson from Fox News, some of the commentary that’s been made the possible future for Tucker and some related things I’ve heard from so many of you about this. This is it’s a major media event. It’s less a political event than it is a media event. And as a show that looks at the media landscape. It’s a really important story. So we’ll start at the beginning. Why was Tucker Carlson fired by Fox News? All sorts of speculation, including that Fox, quote, went woke, and is now left wing, and that’s why they fired Tucker because he’s the last real conservative. No, Tucker Carlson became a problem for Fox News, Fox News, at its primary essence, you could say, is a for profit media entity. And as a result, they had to react they didn’t have to, but they chose to react to the reality that Tucker Carlson was becoming a financial risk for them. Not only is the 787 and a half million dollar settlement in favor of Dominion, that now Rupert Murdoch has to pay out. Not only is that partially a result of the content of Tucker Carlson’s show, but there is more, there’s the Smartmatic lawsuit for over a billion dollars, the results of which we don’t yet know, which could again connect Tucker Carlson directly to costing Fox News money. There is a lawsuit from a former Fox News, a former Tucker Carlson staffer that alleges all sorts of misogyny and religious discrimination behind the scenes at Tucker Carlson show. That could be another financial problem for Fox News. And in addition to that, on 60 minutes, there was recently a piece about this guy Ray Epps who some on the right claimed was some kind of Inside Job instigator agent provocateur. With regard to the January 6, riots and Ray upset on 60 minutes, I don’t I don’t have anything to do with that stuff. And Tucker Carlson has ruined my life. That may be a preview of another forthcoming lawsuit. So at its core, Tucker Carlson has been and continues to be a major financial risk for Fox News. And Fox News may be felt we should do something about it to try to clear ourselves by saying, look, we got rid of the guy. And maybe that will help them mitigate damages in the future in some or all of these causes. That’s number one. Number two, there are some, what about the legality of the firing? There are some including Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have said that Tucker Carlson’s firing is a violation of the First Amendment. Now it’s really important to understand that when you say something violates the First Amendment, you’re saying it’s illegal, saying it’s against the law. And it’s a stunning thing to see those who claim to be on the side of not regulating businesses and business regulation being the worst thing in the world. Let businesses do what they want. Now coming in, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and saying a private company saying we no longer want to work with someone that that is against the law in some way. Now, of course, if you understand what the First Amendment is, you understand that it mediates the relationship between governments suppressing the speech of individuals, FoxNews is not the government. And so with some incredibly rare and hyper specific exceptions, there is not a First Amendment issue now. Are there hypothetical scenarios where the firing of someone by a public or by private company could violate their First Amendment rights? Yes, it’s beyond the scope of my commentary. This is not one of those scenarios by any means. So it is sort of a weird thing to see. People like Marjorie Taylor Greene make the argument that this was an illegal firing. Thirdly, what’s next for Tucker? No idea. Of course, there are media outlets that would love to have Tucker Newsmax news Max is much smaller than Fox News. And if Newsmax were able to get a voice like Tucker Carlson’s, it would be an incredible coup for them. However, it’s probably not Tucker’s best bet, having an understanding of the media landscape. Tucker could take the easiest path by just accepting a nice salary from someone like Newsmax he would stand to make way more money by launching his own thing. Although it would come with the headache of the fact that you’re not just collecting a salary, you’re sort of in charge of an entity but this was even floated between Tucker and someone he was texting with in now released text messages thanks to the Dominion lawsuit that there was it was either a producer or someone around Tucker, who was texting him saying hey, listen, we should like launch our own podcast and website platforms sell memberships Baba Baba, it’ll be profitable. Here’s how much we could make. That’s probably the best way to go for Tucker Carlson. What will he do? Very much remains to be seen but a major shake up in terms of the right wing media landscape
