According to a story from the Daily Caller, a phone conversation from the Chief Legal Counsel of Fox News, Viet Dinh, has purportedly come to the forefront of Tucker Carlson’s case against the network.
On May 3, Viet Dinh is said to have called one of Tucker Carlson’s close associates and asked for a message to be passed along to the former Fox host. Dinh expressed remorse for the way that the days and weeks following Carlson’s termination had happened. In addition, Dinh stated that the network was not behind the series of leaks showcasing behind-the-scenes footage of Carlson’s career at Fox.
The Daily Caller also said that Dinh disclosed that Irena Briganti, the head of public relations for Fox News, had been told that she would be fired if she was caught leaking footage. Dinh provided this information.
In particular, Dinh disclosed that executives at Fox fear that a board of directors member has been speaking to the press about Tucker Carlson without being authorized to do so.
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 from @briannalyman2
Fox News Lawyer's Phone Call Is At The Center Of Tucker's Breach Of Contract Case https://t.co/bFxuGRmhq2
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 19, 2023
Bryan Freedman, Carlson’s attorney, was quoted in the Daily Caller as saying that the disclosures constituted a “smear campaign.”
“It strains credulity that, immediately after agreeing to pay almost $780 million to settle serious allegations of misconduct that a member of Fox’s Board of Directors would be engaging in an attempted smear campaign by illegally leaking information about Tucker Carlson,” Freedman said. “However, we have to trust that it is true when the Chief Legal Officer informs Tucker that he believes it to be the case.”
In a letter that was sent earlier this month by Carlson’s attorneys, Carlson asserted that he had previously accused the network of violating his contract. According to Axios’s story, the letter alleges that Fox committed fraud against Carlson by making “material representations” to him that were subsequently fraudulently breached. “These actions not only breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the Agreement, but give rise to claims for breach of contract, as well as intentional and negligent misrepresentation,” Carlson’s attorneys reportedly stated.
Private text messages that Carlson sent as well as behind-the-scenes video of him joking with staff members before filming his show were leaked to the public.
Briganti was contacted by Daily Caller to inquire about whether Fox News was looking into board of director leaks internally. Briganti was also questioned by Daily Caller over her claimed threat to be fired. The Daily Caller attempted to reach Dinh by phone at both his work and home numbers, but was unsuccessful as of the time of publication. (Disclaimer: Carlson is one of the Daily Caller’s co-founders.)
These allegations were deemed “categorically false” by Brigante, who also forwarded two letters from Fox’s legal team to the Caller. One letter was a stop and desist to Media Matters, which had published a number of Tucker behind-the-scenes footage and was known for smearing conservatives with false articles and edited recordings. The other was a letter from Fox News to Dominion in which the company was accused of disclosing material obtained during the discovery phase of the lawsuit, a claim that Dominion has publicly refuted.
Fox News’ letters, which were made public a few weeks ago, were criticized as a smokescreen to shift responsibility for the leaks away from the struggling brand. Following the cancellation of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox has suffered greatly.
The first edition of “Fox News Tonight,” which took over Carlson’s program, saw a decline in viewers in the crucial 25- to 54-year-old age range. The ratings for the time slot with host Brian Kilmeade dropped to just 1.3 million people, losing out to Chris Hayes of MSNBC, who had 1.38 million viewers the same night. Things only got worse from there. With an average of 3.25 million viewers, Carlson’s program was the second-highest watched cable news program, trailing only Fox’s “The Five.”
Others viewers adopted a more aggressive stance and indignantly canceled their subscriptions to Fox Nation.
While this is going on, Carlson has received support from others, including Brett Favre, a former NFL player who called for a boycott of Fox News.
“Time to boycott Fox until they come to their sense and let the man speak,” Favre posted to Twitter.
Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News personality, also spoke out in Carlson’s favor, claiming that Fox was trying to suppress him and even urging him to break his contract in order to resume reaching his audience.
Amid decreasing ratings since Carlson’s departure, Fox News is apparently currently contemplating “multiple scenarios” for its primetime schedule.
According to Variety, a recent report suggested that Sean Hannity would go to the 8 p.m. slot and that Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld might also be added to the mix.
“No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox said in a statement Wednesday, according to Variety.
However, it’s possible that even a primetime makeover won’t be sufficient to save Fox News. An April 28–May 2 survey of 404 probable Republican primary voters for 2024 indicated that Carlson had a net favorability of 59% and Fox News had a net favorability of –4%.
