Conservative commentator rails against mainstream media in clip announcing “new version” of his top-rated show.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has announced he will bring a “new version” of his top-rated show to Twitter.
Carlson made the announcement in a clip posted on Twitter in which he railed against the US mainstream media and hailed the social media site as the last remaining major platform that allows free speech.
“At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie, a lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind,” Carlson said in a 3-minute clip posted on Tuesday that has been viewed more than 5 million times.
“Facts have been withheld on purpose, along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated.”
Carlson, the most-watched host on Fox News until his ouster last month, said mainstream media organisations were “thinly-designed propaganda outlets” and that journalists who breached the “limits” imposed on them faced dismissal.
“The rule of what you can’t say defines everything. It’s filthy really and it’s utterly corrupting,” Carlson said. “You can’t have a free society if people are not allowed to say what they think is true. Speech is the fundamental prerequisite for democracy.”
The conservative commentator said he would relaunch his show and “some other things” on Twitter “soon.”
As the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carslon became the biggest name in cable news, regularly drawing in more than 3 million nightly viewers with a pugnacious style that took aim at targets ranging from liberal politicians to LGBTQ activists and the CIA.
While hugely popular among conservatives, Carslon’s show drew criticism and attracted advertiser boycotts over its allegedly racist and sexist content.
Carlson was fired by Fox News last month in the aftermath of the network’s $787.5m payout to Dominion Voting Systems for falsely accusing the company of rigging the 2020 US presidential eleciton.
US media outlets have offered a range of explanations for Carlson’s outster, including an ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit by an ex-producer and racially-charged text messages to staff.
Carlson’s decision to relaunch his show on Twitter comes weeks after he interviewed the site’s owner, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on his show.
Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist and critic of liberal bias on Twitter, has made it easier for right-wing voices to proliferate on the platform since buying the company last year for $44bn.
Musk said on Tuesday that Twitter had not signed a “deal of any kind whatsoever” with Carlson.
“Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
Musk added that he hoped that other content creators, “particularly from the left,” would also make their home on Twitter.
Sumber: www.aljazeera.com
