Fresh from being fired by FOX at the end of last month, Tucker Carlson has now announced that his show will be resuscitated, in some shape or form, on Twitter. The announcement video, now with over 73 million views, was posted as his website proclaimed ‘TUCKER IS BACK’. Complete with a photo of Tucker holding a gun.

Tucker added:

“At the most basic level the news you consume is a lie. A lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind. Facts have been withheld on purpose, along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated… We’re just grateful to be here. Free speech is the main right you have. Without it, you have no others.”

Musk responded to Carlson’s declaration of love with the terms and conditions, pointing out fire exits and loos: 

“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 subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators. Rewards means subscriptions and advertising revenue share (coming soon), which is a function of how many people subscribe and the advertising….”

It’s not surprising Musk wants to keep his distance from conspiracy-loving Carlson…

The statement from Fox News has Guido worried:

NEW YORK — April 24, 2023 — FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.

Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.

Guido is not worried much that Tucker Carlson has been binned – he had long shifted from being a conventional strongly conservative voice to someone prone to conspiracy, weak on American global leadership in foreign affairs and increasingly kooky. It is the promise to have his primetime slot hosted by “rotating FOX News personalities” that has Guido worried. Technically speaking Piers Morgan is “a FOX News personality” on the channel’s digital streaming “Fox Nation” platform.

Surely he would not consider getting Piers to do for Fox News what he has done for Talk TV? If Guido could be so bold as to remind Rupert Murdoch*, before Piers became an anti-woke infotainer he is today he had an unsuccessful show on CNN where he campaigned for gun controls. Something that is satanically anathema to the viewership of Fox News…

*Worth a shot, @guidofawkes is one of a handful of accounts Murdoch follows on Twitter.

Over at CPAC in Washington, the Trump base is preparing for war with the Republican establishment. Steve Bannon has identified Rupert Murdoch and Fox News as public enemy number one. This may confuse left-wingers who can’t distinguish between the different flavours of the right. Murdoch is in the Reagan / Thatcher tradition rather than the populist Trump camp with all the culture war craziness, foreign policy incoherence and protectionism. Bannon wants to at least neutralise Fox News’ Trump scepticism.

Overnight, Boris appeared on Fox News with Bret Baier to discuss the outlook on Ukraine. Taking a less-than-subtle dig at Biden’s decision to rule out supplying Ukraine F-16 fighter jets…

“Every time we’ve said that it would be a mistake to give such and such an item of weaponry, we end up doing it and it ends up being the right thing for Ukraine. I remember being told that it was the wrong idea to give them the anti-tank shoulder-launched missiles. Actually they were indispensable, and the United States under Donald Trump gave them the javelins… all I’m saying is: save time, save money, save lives. Give the Ukrainians what they need.”

“This is the moment to double down”…

Guido is an admirer of Rupert Murdoch and the global role he has long played in political affairs. During the Cold War his media assets supported political leaders who stood firm against the Soviet threat, his papers banged the drum in support of the free enterprise system; in Britain he broke the print unions’ resistance to change and progress at Wapping, his satellite television networks brought competition and choice around the world. For decades his broadcast networks and newspapers have given editorial support to parties and politicians fighting collectivism around the globe. Nor should we forget that Bart Simpson entertained the world’s children in a reckless way that has always annoyed the woke.

Nevertheless, the power and influence that he has wielded for good should not, perhaps, outlive him. Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox, appears to be the only heir in his father’s image, and Guido has long feared that – outvoted by his siblings – control in the hands of James and Elisabeth Murdoch would result in a very different drumbeat from the Murdoch Media Empire. It would be progressive, woke and carbon neutral. We would no longer hear or read the voices passionate in their support of free enterprise and the free markets that have brought prosperity to hundreds of millions people since the fall of communism.

Filings just released in the US show that James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn spent $20 million opposing Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election while funnelling another $100 million through Quadrivium, a not-for-profit they control, to support left-wing political groups. James backed Democrat candidates, according to CNBC, who found the large contribution while reviewing the 2019 tax return documents of Quadrivium. James quit the News Corporation board over “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.”  The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal both have conservative opinion sections.

Could Rupert ever bring himself to break up his life’s work? Well he has already divested himself of Twentieth Century Fox to Disney and British Sky Broadcasting to Comcast. Maybe he thinks the same as Guido…