News/Commentary

Fox News demands Dominion launch internal probe into leaks about Tucker Carlson post-settlement

May 8, 2023 | | Print Article

Fox News may have dumped Tucker Carlson in the wake of its $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, but that doesn’t mean the network is okay with the steady smear-tactic leaks involving the controversial host that have since surfaced.

Friday, Fox News lawyers fired off a letter to Dominion, demanding the company launch an internal probe after the network learned that documents, including redacted text messages, that it provided as part of the recent lawsuit “were disclosed to media organizations and published for mass consumption,” The Hill reports.

Attorneys for Fox pressed Dominion officials to “investigate and confirm that you are not the source of these improper disclosures.”

If Dominion is behind the leaks, the lawyers argued, it would violate “the text and spirit of the parties’ agreement.”

While Carlson’s text messages to colleagues making digs at Donald Trump and his claims of voter fraud were made public during Dominion’s legal discovery process prior to what was expected to be a jury trial, previously redacted portions of his private messages have surfaced since his break with Fox News.

As BizPac Review reported, one such message was written to a producer on Jan. 7, 2021, after Carlson watched a video of Trump supporters clashing with Antifa.

“A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living sh*t out of him,” Carlson wrote, according to a story published by The New York Times. “It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him.”

“I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me,” Carlson continued. “I’m becoming something I don’t want to be.”

“Another report published in the Daily Beast this week, citing redacted court documents, alleged Carlson used the c-word to disparage female executives at the network,” The Hill reports.

In a comment to The Hill, a Dominion spokesperson denied that the company was involved. According to the statement, “nobody associated with Dominion shared these confidential materials with the press.”

In addition to the previously unseen text messages, Media Matters has released several off-air videos of Carlson joking with the set crew, making off-color comments, and blasting Fox Nation, the network’s streaming service.

In one of the leaked videos, Carlson jokingly refers to a woman as “yummy” before he flips Media Matters the two-fisted bird and tells them to “go f**k yourself.”


In response, Fox News lawyers also penned a cease-and-desist letter to Media Matters for America. Washington Post reporter Jeremy Barr detailed the letter and Media Matters’ response in a lengthy Twitter thread.

“Fox demands that Media Matters cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage, which you are now on notice was unlawfully obtained,” it read, according to Barr.”Letters says: ‘That unaired footage is FOX’s confidential intellectual property; FOX did not consent to its distribution or publication; and FOX does not consent to its further distribution or publication. This proprietary material was given to you without FOX’s authorization.'”

“Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation…” Media Matters replied.

Media Matter President and CEO Angelo Carusone added, “Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.”

Melissa Fine
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