Tucker Carlson appears to have attempted to mislead his viewers as to why he is back on Twitter after a month-long break.
Carlson, who was suspended by the censor-happy platform on March 23, attributed his return on Monday to Elon Musk on his nightly show.
Twitter’s board of directors voted on Monday to accept Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy the company following weeks of back-and-forth. The deal is expected to close later this year. Until then, Musk does not control Twitter.
Conservatives have broadly celebrated the move, which will presumably give some balance to a platform dominated by liberal corporate and media culture. Carlson also hailed the development in his monologue.
But for 60 seconds during Tucker Carlson Tonight, a Fox News chyron framed Musk as having “unshackled” the host on Twitter.
A chyron that read “MUSK BUYING TWITTER IS THE LEFT’S WORST NIGHTMARE” was replaced at 8:10 p.m. ET by one that implied Musk had set the host free from Twitter jail.
“UNSHACKLED BY ELON MUSK: FREE SPEECH RESTORED; @TUCKERCARLSON BACK ON TWITTER,” a second chyron read until 8:11 p.m. ET.
Carlson made no mention of his own account on Twitter, which has been locked, during the monologue. But between his show and tweet, the host acted as though he wanted to give people the impression he was “unshackled” by Musk.
The host was censored on the platform last month after he called Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine – a transgender woman – a man.
The Fox News host commented on Levine’s biological sex after two other prominent accounts, those of the Babylon Bee and of Charlie Kirk, were suspended for calling Levine a “man.”
Carlson’s account was locked, and would remain that way until he deleted the tweet. Fox News made it clear that Carlson would do no such thing:
(Excerpt) Read more in: Mediaite