Tucker goes public access

The TWITTER FILES might have a new home!

There is something sort of sad about the news, as announced Tuesday, that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will relaunch his show on Twitter. Three weeks ago, Carlson was riding high as the biggest name on America’s most popular cable news network. Then, as far as anyone can tell, he lost his job for being a jerk. Now, he is taking his show to a money-losing website that does not actually have shows and is owned by a terminally thirsty dweeb who is desperate to win the approval of opinion leaders such as catturd2. “Starting soon we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six-and-a-half years to Twitter,” Carlson said on Tuesday in a video posted to the site. “But for now we’re just grateful to be here.” This is sort of like claiming that you’re glad to be exiled to Siberia because you’ve always wanted to learn how to ski.

While Carlson might try to spin this move as an exciting and volitional one, the truth is that the host probably didn’t have all that many other options—and, according to the New York Times, his former employer could still try to enforce his current contract and keep him from relaunching his show. Carlson’s lucrative contract with Fox News included a noncompete agreement that would have kept him off the air until 2025. In order to get out of the noncompete, Carlson would certainly have to forgo a reported $25 million in salary. Although Carlson comes from money, even generationally wealthy people like to be paid what the market says they’re worth. There’s only so much of a salary haircut that anyone would agree to take before it starts to make more sense to just stay home and go fishing for a couple years.

Maybe the idea is to look so pathetic and pose so little threat to the ratings of its shows that Fox decides it’s not worth its while to enforce the non-compete clause? Anyway, I’m sure Elon will find some way to lose tons of money on this deal.