Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson reportedly parked billboard trucks emblazoned with “corporate media is dead” outside the offices of major media outlets on Thursday after launching his own streaming service.
Mr. Carlson sent trucks to the offices of MSNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times on Dec. 14, the Daily Mail reported.
The trucks also advertised “a limited time offer” for people to access “exclusive content” through a $72 annual subscription fee and to become the “founding members” of his new website, Tucker Carlson Network.
During an interview with the Daily Mail on Dec. 14, Mr. Carlson suggested that “the era of dominance by a few big media companies” is over now “because they misused their monopoly.”
He also emphasized the need for new institutions to fill in the role.
“And on some level, they know they’re doomed, which is why they’re hysterical. The era of dominance by a few big media companies, the era of total control over all information by, you know, nine people—that’s done.”
Mr. Carlson said the reason behind him sending those billboard trucks to major media companies was to warn them about the situation.
“It’s important. We’re not doing it out of cruelty and hope we’re not rubbing this in anyone’s face or making the people who still work there feel bad, but they’re doomed,” he remarked.
This came just days after the launch of his subscription-based streaming video service website on Dec. 11. The platform features interviews and is priced at $9 per month, according to the website.
Mr. Carlson took to X to announce his new website on Dec. 9, saying that his team would be “launching a brand-new thing very soon.”
“We’ve been out of work for seven or eight months now, hard to know. Time flies when you’re unemployed,” Mr. Carlson said in a video message.
“But, actually, we have been working in secret and producing an awful lot of material for months now, interviews, et cetera,” he added.
The former top-rated host “parted ways” with Fox News in April, although neither party has released many details about why he left. When reached for comment multiple times this year, multiple Fox spokespeople redirected The Epoch Times to the initial news release announcing his departure.
Mr. Carlson and his team had explored launching the streaming service through X, but the social media company was not able to move quickly enough to build out the technology needed for the service, The Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 10.
He will continue to post the service’s free content on X, the report said.
Other than former President Donald Trump, Mr. Carlson has interviewed influencer Andrew Tate, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Douglas MacGregor, InfoWars host Alex Jones, and many others.
Mr. Carlson began airing episodes for a new show on X in early June. Fox News sent a cease-and-desist letter to Mr. Carlson shortly after the show first launched, according to Axios, after the network argued Mr. Carlson was violating his contract.
Meanwhile, Neil Patel will be the new venture’s chief executive officer, according to the statement. Mr. Patel was chief policy adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney and with Mr. Carlson co-founded the conservative Daily Caller news site, of which he remains publisher.
Justin Wells, Mr. Carlson’s former executive producer at Fox, will serve as president, overseeing all programming and content.
