Fox News really messed up when they decided to let go of Tucker Carlson. In today’s society, media outlets are already on thin ice to begin with because of how divisive they have become. It’s even more obvious that you shouldn’t fire your top performing employee when he’s the one that is essentially keeping the company alive. I’m sure that you know as well as I do that Fox has gradually become more left leaning over the years while trying not to reveal their hand entirely.

Well, now they’re in for a treat because Tucker Carlson appears to be planning to launch his own media venture, according to recent reports from Axios. With the help of a Hollywood heavyweight attorney, Bryan Freedman, Carlson might be looking to break away from his current contract at Fox News which is set to expire in January 2025. Sources close to Carlson have reported that he and Elon Musk have been having conversations about working together in some capacity and the potential for a direct-to-consumer model for content delivery.

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly previously received a $30 million payout from the network with the help of Freedman, and she has since been vocal in her support of Carlson on social media. Recent leaks regarding Carlson’s behind-the-scenes antics with a makeup artist as well as texts he sent about his reaction to the Capitol riots on January 6th were met with criticism from viewers, leading him to take matters into his own hands by posting an almost two-minute video directly addressing viewers via Twitter. This post has since garnered nearly 81 million views, with 24 million watching the attached video.

It appears that Carlson is intent on setting up what one friend called “a media empire of [his] own”, expressing that they are now moving “from peacetime to Defcon1” in order to achieve this goal “quiet and clean”. While questions remain around how exactly he will do so while still under contract at Fox News, it seems clear that Carlson is determined not to let anything stand in his way of reaching out directly to viewers.