Tucker Carlson Reportedly Forming New Media Company

Media

Tucker Carlson Reportedly Forming New Media Company

Published

2 months ago

July 15, 2023

Harry Miller

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson is planning a new media company with ex-White House advisor Neil Patel, the Wall Street Journal reports, with Carlson reportedly “seeking to raise funds” for the new venture even as Fox has sent him a cease and desist letter for allegedly breaching his contract by creating content on Twitter.

Key Facts

The reported venture would “potentially use Twitter as its backbone,” the Journal reports based on anonymous sources, suggesting a model where shorter versions of Carlson’s videos could be viewed on Twitter, but users would need to subscribe to watch full videos.

Carlson and Patel—who Carlson previously founded right-wing news site the Daily Caller with, which Patel still runs—are seeking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the venture and have already “lined up financiers, lawyers and media strategists,” the Journal reports.

The media venture would eventually include videos from other hosts and would have its own website and mobile app, the Journal reports, noting that videos could be hosted off of Twitter as well—though Carlson and Patel are hesitant to use YouTube given concerns their videos could be censored by the platform.

Carlson and Patel have already met with Twitter, as has Carlson’s Fox producer Justin Wells, and Carlson’s team has discussed with Twitter employees the platform’s “readiness” for features like watching Twitter videos on a television, the Journal reports.

Carlson turned to Twitter after being suddenly ousted by Fox in April, announcing in May he was launching a show on Twitter that then started airing episodes in early June.

Fox News, which has contended Carlson’s Twitter show is in breach of his Fox contract, declined to comment to the Journal and has not yet responded to a request for comment.

What To Watch For

The Journal report does not give any indication of when Carlson and Patel’s new media venture could launch, assuming it moves forward. Letters sent from Fox News to Carlson and reported by Axios indicate Carlson’s contract with the network states any content he produces must be exclusive to Fox through December 31, 2024, though Carlson’s lawyer Harmeet Dhillon suggested to Axios Carlson is refusing to follow that. “Tucker will not be silenced by anyone … He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so,” Dhillon said, criticizing Fox for “demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election.”

Big Number

467.1 million. That’s the number of views Carlson’s show on Twitter has received as of Friday morning, according to Twitter metrics from the nine episodes of Carlson’s show that have been released so far. Twitter video views are not directly comparable to viewership on cable or network news, with the social media platform counting a video “view” as a viewer watching a video for at least two seconds with at least 50% of the video player in view.

Key Background

Carlson was suddenly fired at Fox News in April, days after the news outlet settled a defamation lawsuit with voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems that was in part based on Carlson’s show and off-screen comments. Discovery during the lawsuit uncovered a text message in which Carlson criticized an attack by Trump supporters as “not how white people fight,” which reportedly launched an investigation into his behavior that led to his firing, and Carlson’s show was also the subject of a now-settled lawsuit with former producer Abby Grossberg, who alleged it was a toxic workplace with pervasive sexism. The network has also since been sued by Trump supporter Ray Epps, after Carlson promoted a false conspiracy theory on air suggesting Epps was an undercover government agent who instigated the January 6 riot. Carlson was Fox News’ highest-rated anchor before his ousting, making his sudden departure more shocking, and the network’s ratings went down in the wake of Carlson’s departure as supporters appeared to decamp to right-wing network Newsmax. Fox announced in June that anchor Jesse Watters would take over Carlson’s former time slot.

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Media

Big media rallies on signs of end to Hollywood writers' strike – The Globe and Mail

Published

22 mins ago

September 25, 2023

Harry Miller

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Jailed Italian Mafia boss Messina Denaro dies

Published

12 hours ago

September 24, 2023

Harry Miller

ROME, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Italian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was arrested in January after spending 30 years on the run, has died, AFP reported on Monday, citing Italian media.

Messina Denaro, 61, was suffering from cancer at the time of his arrest. As his condition worsened in recent weeks he was transferred to a hospital from the maximum-security prison in central Italy where he was initially held.

He was convicted of numerous crimes, including for his role in planning the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino – crimes that shocked Italy and sparked a crackdown on the Sicilian mob.

He was also held responsible for bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993 that killed 10 people, as well as helping organise the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo, 12, to try to dissuade the boy’s father from giving evidence against the mafia. The boy was held for two years, then murdered.

Dubbed by the Italian press as “the last Godfather”, Messina Denaro is not believed to have given any information to the police after he was seized outside a private health clinic in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, on Jan. 16.

According to medical records leaked to the Italian media, he underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under a false name. A doctor at the Palermo clinic told La Repubblica newspaper that Messina Denaro’s health had worsened significantly in the months leading up to his capture.

Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukraine to receive US long-range ATACMS missiles, US media report

Published

1 day ago

September 24, 2023

Harry Miller

United States President Joe Biden has informed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that Washington will provide Kyiv with ATACMS long-range missiles, US broadcaster NBC News has reported.

Ukraine has repeatedly asked the Biden administration for the long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to help hit supply lines, airbases and rail networks deep behind Russia’s front lines in occupied regions of Ukraine.

But the White House has not announced a decision to provide Ukraine with the ATACMS system and the missiles were not publicly discussed when Zelenskyy visited Washington, DC on Thursday for talks with Biden, even as the US announced a new $325m military aid package for Kyiv.

The White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the NBC report on Friday.

The Pentagon also declined to say whether any promise of ATACMS was given to Zelenskyy during his meetings on Thursday at the Department of Defense, saying: “In regards to ATACMS, we have nothing to announce.”

A date for delivery of the ATACMS was not revealed, according to NBC.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned earlier this month that the supply of longer-range missiles to Kyiv would cross a “red line” and the US would be viewed as “a party to the conflict” in Ukraine if it did provide such weapons.

Zelenskyy did not answer directly when asked about the NBC reports on ATACMS, but he noted that the US was the biggest single supplier of weaponry to Ukraine.

“We are discussing all the different types of weapons – long-range weapons and artillery, artillery shells with the calibre of 155mm, then air defence systems,” Zelenskyy said, speaking through an interpreter.

“We have a comprehensive discussion and [we] work with the United States at different levels,” he said.

The Washington Post also reported that the US plans to provide Ukraine with a version of the ATACMS that will be armed with cluster bomblets rather than a single warhead, citing several unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations, and that can fly up to 306km (190 miles).

ATACMS is designed for “deep attack of enemy second-echelon forces”, a US Army website states, and could be used to attack command and control centres, air defences and logistics sites well behind the front line.

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