Since Fox News “parted ways” with Tucker Carlson there has been an ongoing effort to completely destroy the host’s reputation and ensure he remains sidelined for good.
Everyone assumed the smear campaign was obviously the work of either Fox News or Democrats.
But Fox News just publicly made accusations involving Tucker Carlson and the Dominion settlement.
After Fox News made the stunning announcement that it was taking the most influential personality in traditional media, Tucker Carlson, off air, media talking heads and self-proclaimed “journalists” immediately began to speculate about the reason such a decision was made.
And when Carlson’s previously redacted text messages that were turned over as part of Dominion Voting Systems $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News suddenly appeared in the media, the typical players created a narrative that they somehow proved the host is “racist.”
Many assumed that the text messages had obviously been leaked by Fox News to Democrat attack dogs in the media to further the network’s efforts to smear Carlson, as they seek to keep him sidelined through the 2024 election.
But now, Fox News’ accusations in a letter to Dominion has turned everything upside down.
According to a letter Fox News counsel Katherine Mowery sent to Dominion Voting Systems’ attorneys, Brian and Michael Farnan, the network is now demanding the company perform an internal investigation.
“To our knowledge, portions of documents described and quoted in these articles were never made public on the docket, and, notably, three of the documents cited in The Daily Beast were only exhibits at Mr. Carlson’s deposition (not in any Court filings),” Mowery wrote. “Additionally, the testimony from Mr. Carlson’s confidential deposition quoted in the Daily Beast article was never made public on the docket.”
Obviously, Fox News either actually believes, or simply wants people to believe, that Dominion is the source of the leak.
And there’s about literally hundreds of millions of reasons why Fox News would want people to believe Dominion is the source of the leak – it would potentially violate the terms of the network’s $787 million agreement it reached to settle the defamation suit the company filed, potentially allowing Fox to avoid paying some, if not the entire penalty.
“As you must be aware, such disclosure by your clients would be a violation of the Court’s Amended Order Governing the Production and Exchange of Confidential Information,” Mowery added. “For example, paragraph 10 of that Order provides that ‘Discovery Material shall be used solely for purposes of this Litigation and shall not be used for any other purpose.’ Particularly now that the action has been settled and is no longer active, sharing confidential discovery material with the media could never be said to be ‘for purposes of this Litigation.’”
“Nor are members of the media included among the persons (listed in paragraphs 6 and 7 of that Order) with whom confidential discovery material may be shared,” she continued. “See also Order ¶ 27. Moreover, paragraph 23 expressly provides that the terms of the Order ‘continue to be binding throughout and after the conclusion of the Litigation.’”
Interestingly, as some conservatives pointed out, Fox News never once mentioned in its letter, or gave any sort of public indication, that it had conducted its own internal investigation to rule out a leak from within the network.
One would assume if Fox News’ high-powered corporate attorneys are tossing around accusations at others, they would have at least ruled themselves out first.
But at the same time, if they had ruled out the possibility that the leak came from with their own walls, that does seem like something they’d want people to know.
On top of that, reports have indicated that Fox News is more than willing to pay Carlson the remaining total of nearly $70 million he’s reportedly still owed on his contract with the network in order to keep him off air through the 2024 election.
And considering the fact that Carlson has made it clear that he is more than willing to sacrifice a large portion of that sum to get out of his deal with the network and back on-air as soon as possible, it seems as though the networks’ executives are now resorting to other means to keep him off air.
Fox News likely knows they can’t win the legal battle to keep Tucker Carlson sidelined through the 2024 election.
But it appears someone is desperate enough to resort to outright slander to silence him.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.