The network claims its ousted host has violated his contract by starting a new show on Twitter. Fox News has alleged that former host Tucker Carlson breached his employment contract by launching a new talk show on Twitter. The network argues that it has exclusive rights to Carlson’s services.

Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar sent a letter on Tuesday evening to Carlson’s lawyers, warning that the network would take action to protect its contractual rights. ‘This evening, we were made aware of Mr Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Mr Carlson’s services shall be completely exclusive to Fox.’

Carlson, who boasted the highest ratings in US cable news history, was ousted by Fox in April. Axios said Fox, which continues to pay Carlson his contractually agreed salary, aims to keep him silenced through 2025, which would mean the host being side-lined for the 2024 presidential election.

Carlson’s Twitter talk show debuted on Tuesday, attracting more than 90 million views in its first 24 hours making social media more powerful than mainstream. The rating highwater mark for his primetime show on Fox was 5.3 million viewers.

Gugar’s letter claimed that under Carlson’s contract, the host was ’prohibited from rendering services of any type whatsoever, whether over the internet via streaming or similar distribution, or other digital distribution whether now known or hereafter devised.’

Lawyer Bryan Freedman blasted Fox’s effort to block Carlson from expressing his views. ‘Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,’ he said in a statement. ’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.’

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