- Fox News' lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Media Matters over coverage of Tucker Carlson.
- The letter demands Media Matters stop publishing behind-the-scenes videos of Carlson.
Fox News' lawyers have sent a cease and desist letter to Media Matters for America over its publication of leaked videos showing Tucker Carlson making offensive and embarrassing comments off-air.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati sent a letter on Friday to Media Matters' President and Chief Executive Officer Angelo Carusone demanding the immediate "cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox's misappropriated proprietary footage," according to a copy obtained by Insider.
"That unaired footage is FOX's confidential intellectual property; FOX did not consent to its distribution or publication; and FOX does not consent to its further distribution or publication," the letter said.
In a statement shared with Insider, Carusone said: "Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they're a news operation."
He added: Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden's laptop, it will alleviate their concerns."
Attorneys for Fox News declined to comment further to Insider.
Over the past week, Media Matters has published multiple behind-the-scenes videos of Carlson, including one in which he asks his makeup artist if his female colleagues have "pillow fights" in the bathroom.
In other videos, Carlson complained that "nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks" and said he'd rather put his interviews on YouTube than on Fox's site.
Carlson, once Fox News' star host, left the company late last month days after Fox News and Dominion reached a $787.5 million settlement in the voting machine company's defamation lawsuit.