Texas Governor Greg Abbott has waded into the furore surrounding the ousting of Tucker Carlson from Fox News, citing a report by Axios that the network parted ways with the controversial presenter as part of its settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
On Saturday (13 May), the governor tweeted: “If the public reporting is accurate that Dominion Voting Systems demanded that Tucker Carlson be fired as part of a litigation settlement, then I am happy that Dominion does not operate in Texas, and I don’t think that they should do so in the future.”
Mr Abbott added: “We may disagree with other’s positions, but we should never try to improperly silence views contrary to our own.”
Further, he tweeted: “If Dominion wants to do business with Texas in the future, they should first answer questions about what role, if any, they played in silencing a prominent conservative journalist.
“The answers to those questions, and other factors, should guide whether we want them to operate here.”
The governor included a link to reporting by Axios from 9 May, “Scoop: Tucker Carlson accuses Fox of fraud, contract breach”.
The focus of the report is an aggressive letter sent by lawyers representing Carlson to Fox News claiming “fraud and breach of contract” against their client.
It cites broken promises concerning the alleged leaking of private messages and not using those messages to “take any adverse employment action against him”. Carlson is said to be preparing for “war” against the network.
Carlson’s private communications have been widely reported as the alleged reason for his abrupt ousting on 24 April.
However, the letter also alleges that the network broke a promise not to settle with Dominion “in a way which would indicate wrongdoing” on the part of Carlson nor to take any actions in a settlement that would harm his reputation.
Axios, citing two sources briefed on the conversation, reports a member of the Fox board told Carlson he was taken off the air.
“These actions not only breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the Agreement, but give rise to claims for breach of contract, and intentional and negligent misrepresentation,” the letter says.
A Fox News spokesperson told Axios it is “categorically false” that Carlson lost his job as part of the network’s $787.5m settlement with Dominion.
In addition, Stephen Shackelford, an outside attorney for Dominion, told the outlet: “Dominion did not insist on them firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement.”
Last week, Carlson announced he would soon be bringing his show to Twitter. Such a move would technically breach a non-compete provision in his contract, which runs until January 2025.
Carlson’s lawyers argue that the network’s actions have already breached the contract freeing him up to pursue other opportunities.
