On Tuesday, some two weeks after being kicked to the curb by Fox News, Tucker Carlson revealed he’d found a new home: the same place where Catturd lives. The host who’s been fired from three separate 24-hours news networks announced he was producing a version of his Fox News show for Twitter. Given that Carlson had reportedly had a secret meeting with the service’s owner, Elon Musk, over the weekend, it sounded like the two had worked out some kind of deal. Not so, Musk later said, adding that he’d be policing Carlson should he say anything false — which, you know, good luck with that.
On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said.
And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes.
I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is… https://t.co/0TMjuYnKUp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
As per Deadline, Musk claimed he and Tucker “have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever,” adding, “Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”
In his announcement video, Carlson had called Twitter the “last big” platform for unfettered free speech “remaining in the world.” Alas, it sounds like it won’t be as free as Tucker would like. On Fox News, Carlson regularly spread bald misinformation about matters such as the pandemic and the Jan. 6 riot. He even spread white supremacist conspiracy theories. He also used to sing the praises of “testicle tanning.”
But while Musk rarely deletes tweets (at least lately), misleading or incorrect posts do often receive annotations. Tucker, it seems, will be no different, with Musk vowing that should the firebrand say “anything misleading,” he’ll incur the wrath of Community Notes, the team responsible for affixing corrections to prominent posts boasting misinformation.
That said, Musk was stoked that someone as big as Tucker Carlson was not only a paid Twitter Blue subscriber, but was also creating content for him, for pay. He encouraged liberals to become “content creators” for him, just like Tucker.
So did Tucker Carlson potentially leave millions from his Fox News contract on the table — to say nothing of any legal fees and/or settlements he’ll incur should he and his old employers go head-to-head in court — so he could be just another schnook paying a service to give them free content? And will his videos be graffitied with reams of corrections written by overworked fact checkers? If so, this was surely not the outcome anyone imagined for the network’s erstwhile biggest star.
(Via Deadline)