Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson allied?

An astonishing rumor has broken out on left-wing and some conventional media. According to it, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson are now allied, with a view to pressuring Fox News to release Carlson from his contract with that firm.

Where Tucker Carlson stands

The original source, and details, come from Axios. When Fox News forbade Tucker Carlson to run any more episodes of his show, they did not actually fire him. (This stands in contrast to the earlier rumor that Fox would deny him severance and defend any lawsuit he brought to force them to pay severance.) Instead they continued to pay him a salary of $20 million a year not to work. As long as the contract lasts, Carlson may not found or work for any outlet that competes with Fox. That contract expires January 2025 – the month of the next Presidential inauguration, hence after the next Presidential election.

Tucker’s next rejoinder was to hint at a plan to start his own network, in this Twitter video:

Since muzzling Carlson, Fox News has seen its ratings slide severely. Tucker Carlson has also received lucrative offers from several parties, including Newsmax and Rumble. Both have offered to pay him far more than the $20 million he is now receiving. The problem: his contract terminates at Fox’s pleasure, not his.

Carlson hired Bryan J. Freedman, whom Axios describes as “a high-powered Hollywood lawyer.” He told Axios this:

The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.

Separately, Darrell L. Castle suspects Fox acted as they did after Carlson gave a platform to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But Fox might also have acted at the behest of Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. Rupert Murdoch conversed with him before the muzzling – and did not report it.

Enter Elon Musk

Now, says Axios, Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk recently had a conversation about working together. Axios provided no specifics, and hinted that Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson did not exactly get down to brass tacks.

When the Axios story broke, several outlets, including Forbes, Business Insider, and Rolling Stone picked it up. Business Insider reported also that Tucker Carlson is “mobilizing his allies” and “preparing for war” with Fox. Axios had further rumors from several sources. The most salient:

He knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and is ready to start drawing a map.

And:

He’s been saying: “No. I want to get this done quiet and clean.” Now, we’re going from peacetime to Defcon 1.

The United States military always holds itself at one of five Defense Conditions. Five means peace – and one means war.

Elon Musk appeared on Carlson’s program last month, about a week before the muzzling.

Among other things, Elon Musk took time to warn Carlson’s audience about the dangers of “hyperintelligent” AI.

This tweet offered more details of that interview, after someone noticed that Fox News had taken down an earlier, annotated version of their own article.

The news of Elon Musk talking with Tucker Carlson has already broken on Twitter, as these tweets show:

Most users seem to support Tucker Carlson and urge Elon Musk to work with him.

Analysis

CNAV cannot verify independently whether Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson had any conversation – or not. On the other hand, Elon Musk could deny it any time he wishes – and hasn’t done so. Indeed he has not sent one tweet all weekend mentioning Carlson’s name.

Apart from this rumor and talk of war from people close to Tucker Carlson, Musk often says how critical freedom of speech is. He also frequently accuses legacy media organs of manipulation, as he did only yesterday:

As CNAV has said before, Fox has no legitimate business reason to do what they’re doing to Tucker Carlson. Elon Musk, on the other hand, would have a legitimate business reason to assist Tucker Carlson in any way Mr. Carlson might ask. But this isn’t about business anymore, but about ideology.

In a sense perhaps different from how Tucker Carlson’s confidant meant these words, we are indeed at DefCon One.