The sudden decision by Fox News to fire its biggest star came as a bombshell, inspiring numerous, sometimes conflicting reports about the network’s rationale. Although the sting of settling the Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million and dual lawsuits filed by former booking producer Abby Grossberg may have played a role, it appears that text messages surfaced in the Dominion discovery process was the leading cause of Tucker Carlson’s ouster.
We’ve written before about the reputation cost of putting anything in a text or email that we don’t want aired in court or discovered by journalists.
According to the New York Times, that’s exactly what happened to Mr. Carlson. Redacted messages were included in Dominion’s legal filings, leading them to be widely reported by the media. Apparently, the unredacted messages were even more inflammatory, damaging Mr. Carlson’s reputation inside the network to such a degree that Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch decided to part ways with him.
This, when Mr. Carlson hosted the #1 show in cable news, pulling three million viewers per night.
Texting Never Safe from a Legal Standpoint
While the contents of Mr. Carlson’s text messages were reportedly shocking, what’s surprising is that he felt that it was okay to send them: that is, safe from a legal standpoint. (Reputational risk does not appear to have been a concern.) Text messages are easily discoverable, and even after they’re deleted both texts and emails can often be recovered by IT professionals.
Although most of us will never be a central figure in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit, our supposedly private communications can easily come out in more down-to-earth settings, such as family court. Lawyers often go after these communications, since once they’re admitted in court they’re treated like recorded conversations, making them difficult to dispute.
When private communications do become evidence, they also become public. That means every joke, every flirty text, every political rant, and every picture or video can easily find its way into the public eye. Many advertisers, investors and sponsors steer away from the type of red flags Carlson’s tests appear to have sparked, both for liability reasons and for fear of attracting reputational harm.
Tread Carefully
How do you avoid damaging your reputation by talking too freely on text?
The first solution is obvious: don’t say things that would cause embarrassment (or worse) if they came out in a legal proceeding or the pages of the newspaper.
However, given that most of us will say something to a friend, colleague, or significant other that we wouldn’t want the world to hear, we recommend using a secure app like Signal rather than email or text. Using a messaging app that provides end-to-end encryption prevents third parties from deciphering messages and ensures that when messages are deleted by all recipients they can’t be recovered. This is not to condone harmful personal messages…but just saying.