Attorneys for Fox Information have drafted a sequence of threatening letters following the leaking of textual content messages and unaired footage relating to the community’s not too long ago fired host Tucker Carlson.
Attorneys for Dominion Voting Techniques, who settled a defamation lawsuit with Fox for an enormous $787.5 million final month, had been despatched letters on Friday that complained in regards to the leaking of beforehand redacted Carlson textual content messages uncovered as a part of the trial. The unredacted texts, revealed by a number of media retailers this week, characteristic Carlson utilizing a sexist slur and making racially charged remarks.
In two letters obtained by Newsweek, 4 totally different Dominion attorneys are warned that the disclosures are in violation of a court docket order and the phrases of the settlement. The Fox attorneys demand that Dominion launch an “investigation” into the leaks and report again with their findings by Monday.
“Fox requests that you simply and your shoppers instantly make an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this inexcusable launch of confidential discovery materials and report again to Fox by the shut of enterprise on Might 8, 2023,” Fox lawyer Katharine Mowery writes in one of many letters.
“Fox takes these improper disclosures critically and requests that you simply and your shoppers examine and ensure that you’re not the supply of those improper disclosures,” writes lawyer Dan Webb within the different letter. “By shut of enterprise on Might 8, 2023, please let me know the character and conclusions of the investigation you carried out.”
Drew Angerer/Getty
In an announcement to Newsweek, a Dominion spokesperson stated that “no one related to Dominion shared these confidential supplies with the press.”
Along with the calls for to Dominion, a Fox lawyer additionally despatched a cease-and-desist letter to progressive media watchdog group Media Issues for America on Friday. The group has not too long ago obtained and revealed a sequence of unflattering movies of Carlson on the set of his canceled well-liked opinion present Tucker Carlson Tonight.
A duplicate of the letter emailed to Newsweek options lawyer Christopher Chiou asking Media Issues President and CEO Angelo Carusone to “make clear any misunderstandings” in regards to the footage, whereas demanding that he put an finish to the publishing of “Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage.”
Carusone responded to the calls for in a statement that rejects the calls for whereas mockingly suggesting that the conservative-leaning information community can be much less involved if the footage had concerned the laptop computer of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
“Reporting on newsworthy leaked materials is a cornerstone of journalism,” Carusone stated. “For Fox to argue in any other case is absurd and additional dispels any pretense that they seem to be a information operation.”
“Maybe if I inform them that the footage got here from a mixture of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, it can alleviate their issues,” he added.
The behind-the-scenes movies revealed by Media Issues present Carlson making a sequence of questionable feedback to feminine colleagues, whereas additionally disparaging the community’s personal streaming platform Fox Nation and complaining that he had been “triggered” by a Dominion lawyer he described as a “slimy little motherf*****.”
In a video exhibiting Carlson pondering whether or not he thinks a lady is “yummy,” the then-host seemingly anticipates that the footage would later be leaked to Media Issues, making an obscene gesturing whereas telling the watchdog to “go f*** your self.”
Of the leaked textual content messages, one significantly eyebrow-raising second options Carlson coming to the conclusion that his want for an “Antifa child” to be crushed to loss of life by a gaggle of “Trump guys” was mistaken. Carlson additionally stated that beating the “Antifa child” can be “dishonorable” as a result of it isn’t “how white males struggle.”