By Robert Willmann
Floating around in the wind are different opinions about why Tucker Carlson no longer has an evening show on the Fox News television network. An assumption seems to be that he was fired and is no longer employed. But that might not be the case. A television network decides which shows to broadcast and who appears on them. Carlson is “off the air” at Fox News, and that is the only thing we can verify.
A written employment contract, which Carlson certainly has, often includes a “non-compete clause”, which restricts the person after leaving a company from immediately going to a competing company in the same or similar business [1]. If Fox only cancelled his show and did not terminate his employment, he would continue to be paid under his contract. Depending on what the contract said about his employment duties and his show, the monkey might be on Carlson’s back to be the one to terminate his contract, which would then trigger issues about any non-compete clause, what amount of money he would no longer receive, and so forth.
My guess is that Fox did not cancel Carlson’s employment contract, and he is technically still an employee.
[1] A short, general article about employment contracts in Texas. Part G has a brief description entitled “Covenant Not to Compete/Non-Competition Clauses”.
Termination of Employment
If the employment contract does not provide for a set
term of employment, then the contract should address the
circumstances in which an employee could be terminated
“for cause” and/or “without cause.” In layman’s terms, “for
cause” means that an employee is being fired with good reason
or justification, whereas “without cause” denotes termination
without reason or justification.
His Fox emails seemed to have helped Dominion win, in spite of the fact his opinions were widely shared inside the channel. Except most wouldn’t go as far?
But in a position like that you are not fired, I agree. The lawyers of both parties may have been busy longer now to find out how much he gets for the termination of the employment contract. When exactly was the settlement, when was Tucker’s last show?
What a pity we can not take a look at his employment contract 😉
Avoiding further publications of Tucker’s emails no doubt mattered in the Dominion case. They obviously led to the termination of his show too. Our media extensively picks up on a recent NYT article. I would assume a lot here agree with tucker on American Antifa kids.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/business/media/tucker-carlson-text-message-white-men.html
In the world of professional sport sometimes a “troublesome” athlete is not fired but not played. He’s benched. Benching for the duration of his contract prevents another team from getting his services, diminishes his career, and allows the aging process to lessen his abilities. Did Carlson’s contract make him the exclusive “ppty” of Fox News? If yes, is this an issue of free speech or free contract. No one could have forced Carlson to agree to an exclusive contract but, if he signed such, as we say on this side of the pond – Tough Ship. You’re right, one needs to see his employment contract. But that’s his and Fox’s business.
LeaNder,
Dominion didn’t win, the lawsuit was settled out of court. There’s a big difference between those two results.
” Tucker’s emails ….. obviously led to the termination of his show…”
No.
Transgenderism and the Democratic Party’s policy, the war in Ukraine and lack of accountability about funding it; and the video of the Capitol Hill Police escorting “J6 insurrectionists” (See TTG’s post quoting the bloviating on MSNBC) had one hell of a lot more to do with the removal from the air, which ended his influence on the ‘normies’, than emails or even his calling Sydney “honey badger” Powell out on crap she couldn’t back up. (He did that on air and stopped giving her a platform when she couldn’t show proof.)
This could be interesting depending on Tucker’s contract status.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/05/04/now-this-would-be-fun-tucker-carlson-could-host-alternative-gop-primary-debate-n1692733
A debate that is not played out between the 45 yard lines to appease Washington, media and the donor class.
Is it actually surprising that Spencer shows up on PJ? I am missing Babak Makkinejad in this context. He was always present there, as was Babak himself?
If he’s prohibited from all further journalism from some future date onward then that day is benchmark and bleak one. So the issue is important. The trend on free speech is quite negative now for at least 21 years.
“Murdoch studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Worcester College, Oxford, in England, where he kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms and came to be known as “Red Rupert”. Early Life last paragraph : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch
Tucker’s contract is more akin to that of a professional athlete than a regular employee. Several key points: Limited contract duration, speculation is 1 year left on the contract; guaranteed salary, termination without paying out full salary is very difficult; non-compete clause.
What is likely happening is that Fox served Tucker with notice of intent to terminate and the two sides are discussing the terms of the buyout. Fox will pay out only a portion of the salary owed, but will wave some of the non-compete stipulations.
My guess is that non-compete will stay in place for cable news competitors, like Newsmax, but will be waived for streaming and podcasting. Tucker indicated he is close to announcing his new venture, so I suspect that agreement is close to complete.
Wherever Tucker goes, his whole audience will follow him there. So whatever venue he goes onto will become bigger and more important than it is/was before his arrival there.
Jesse Ventura had a show on TruTV called CONSPIRACY THEORY WITH JESSE VVENTURA. It was very popular. Too popular. The show was stopped. They paid Ventura to sit on the sideline, quiet, for years. That’s how it’s done. Likely, the same thing is happening with Tucker Carlson and Fox News.