Until they took Tucker off the air, Fox News was cruising along—fat, dumb, happy, and raking it in. We don’t know exactly who had the brain fart of an idea to remove Tucker—the key to Fox’s success. Maybe it was the Murdoch children, who are said to be extremely liberal. Somebody didn’t think this one through—at all. They did this stupid thing with a barracuda of an entrepeneur in charge of Twitter and looking for a way to make it work profitably. Tucker could well be Elon Musk’s goose laying golden eggs, and Tucker seems happy to be part of Twitter.
When Tucker made his announcement, my first thought was that Fox had folded.
After all, just this morning I had predicted that Tucker would win if Fox tried to enforce the non-compete clause in Tucker’s contract. However, that doesn’t appear to be exactly the case. Tucker has accused two named Fox executives of “fraud and misrepresentation.” That means, to me, that Fox hasn’t released Tucker yet. According to Tucker, his contract contained a stipulation that Fox would never release his internal communications—or at least not as part of an employment action like this one. My understanding of what has transpired is that Fox has, indeed, done so. Perhaps they thought they could intimidate Tucker? If so, that was Fox’s second big miscalculation.
The news gets worse—for Fox. Elon Musk is the type of guy who probably has the equivalent of a major law firm on retainer. These guys appear to be very good—as witness the short shrift they made of Twitter’s attempt to resist Elon’s takeover, as these things go. If the facts are remotely close to Tucker’s representations, I doubt that any court will enforce the non-compete clause. I’d be the last person in the world to hold myself out as an expert on high stakes contract litigation but, hey, I’ve got a keyboard in front of me, I just finished a wonderful dinner, and I think I’ll have a go.
At a guess, I would speculate that Elon’s lawyers will contact Fox’s lawyers (as they’ve probably already done). They’ll advise Fox of their view of the Tucker contract. That view will track closely with Tucker’s view. In fact, Tucker’s view was quite possibly explained to him by Elon’s lawyers. Elon’s lawyers will tell Fox that, in their expert and informed opinion, the non-compete clause is no longer valid due to the “fraud and misrepresentation” of the two named Fox executives. Therefore, Twitter intends to go ahead with the new Tucker show but they’d like Fox to sign an agreement that concedes that Tucker is now free to take on new job opportunities without regard to any provisions in Tucker’s contract with Fox. If Fox refuses, my guess is that Elon’s lawyers will tell Fox: Fine, sue us. Twitter will go ahead as planned and it will be up to Fox to try to stop Tucker. My money, as this morning but even more so now that Tucker has Musk’s backing, will be on Musk to win that one handily. I’d even be surprised if Fox could get any sort of injunction or restraining order, if the circumstances are anything like Tucker says they are.
Elon is obviously a man on a mission. Whatever else you may say about him, he is clearly intent on taking down the Establishment that rules America and is driving it into the ground. Elon now has his hands on the hottest opinion shaper in the country, who happens to share many of Elon’s views. We’re heading into an election that has major implications for the future of America. Tucker will have lots to say. This looks like a very big win for Elon Tucker. In fact, Elon may be having a good laugh right now over Soros paying out to buy Vice News. Good luck competing with Tucker.
Kanekoa the Great is a guy that I should check out more often—I do, just not often enough. I was just now reviewing his feed—alerted by a commenter—and came across a thread full of interesting graphics like this one. It’s the kind of stuff that Tucker would have fun with:
Hmmmmm.
Next question: Who influenced the media to act this way?
And look who else comments on Kanekoa’s feed:
Replying to
Wow
And:
Interesting article. Perhaps @CommunityNotes can add further context & corrections.
The 2020 Election Wasn't Stolen, It Was Bought By Mark Zuckerberg
The true story of how Mark Zuckerberg privatized the government's voter registration and vote counting for Democrats in 2020.
Looking forward to Tucker’s new venture. Don’t you love it when the ruling class gets smacked upside the head?
Anytime I hear of a high stakes political court battle, all I can think of is Emmett Sullivan v Michael Flynn. So the abject cynic in me fears the worst, no matter how slam-dunk a case Carlson's may turn out to be.
Mr Musk's tweet saying "no deal" had been signed with Mr Carlson is to me, no big deal.
The same tide raises all ships, and no doubt the two men understand each other in that regard.
More, Twitter Inc becomes X Inc o/a 18 May. X Inc will be rolling out new capabilities, and likely will need new capabilities to host a live 60+minute video show five days a week. This is where the collaboration between the two men occurs. Musk may have said something like, "Come to Twitter and I'll personally ensure you've got whatever you need technologically."
With one show (Carlson's) on the platform, likely others will follow. Sure would be great for Sharryl Atkinson to be more accessible, for instance.
Reading Musk's tweet feed is interesting. Yesterday, someone who has a car dealership podcast (who knew there was such a thing) said having that podcast on Twitter boosted listens by 400%. Now that might be from one listener to four, one hundred to four hundred, or another multiple. The car dealership guy asked for 10 sec rewind, 10 sec fast forward, and several other features to make his podcast more in conformation with currently available capabilities found elsewhere. Musk actually commented on this, strongly suggesting (to me at least) that he supported and would add those capabilities to the Twitter/X platform.
There have been intimations for some time that Musk wanted to turn Twitter into an "everything"platform, a combination of social media, online payment (a la PayPal) etc.