Los Angeles-based lawyer Bryan Freedman is referred to as a combative litigator who takes on circumstances pitting media personalities towards primary tv networks, together with for Megyn Kelly and Chris Cuomo.
Neither Carlson nor Lemon have discussed the explanations for his or her firing, and it isn’t transparent in the event that they plan to take any felony motion. Carlson’s ouster comes after the discharge of his personal communications about former president Donald Trump and Fox’s interior control. Lemon prompt he was once unaware that he was once going to be fired.
CNN and Fox didn’t reply to a request for remark. Carlson didn’t reply to The Washington Post’s request for remark. A consultant for Lemon may no longer be reached for remark.
Freedman, who co-founded Freedman + Taitelman with fellow lawyer Michael Taitelman in 1997 to provide the similar “expertise and aggressiveness” as huge companies, has a observe file of negotiating favorable go out programs for debatable media personalities. The company’s website describes Freedman as “the go to lawyer in crisis litigation.”
Freedman represented Kelly, the conservative former Fox News and NBC host, after she was once fired from NBC amid a backlash to feedback she made concerning the appropriateness of White other people dressing up in blackface for Halloween. Kelly was once extensively reported to have secured a agreement for slightly below half of the $69 million closing on her three-year contract with NBC.
Freedman additionally helped negotiate a agreement, which Variety reported to be value $10 million, for Chris Harrison, the previous host of “The Bachelor” franchise who stepped down after he defended a contestant accused of racial insensitivity. And he represented actress Gabrielle Union, who filed a discrimination, harassment and retaliation criticism after she was once fired from NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Union and NBC reached an “amicable resolution” in 2020, however the phrases in their settlement weren’t publicly disclosed.
The lawyer could also be representing former CNN anchor Cuomo in his $125 million arbitration call for towards CNN, during which Cuomo claimed that the community unlawfully terminated him. Cuomo was once fired in 2021 after it emerged that he urged his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, on the best way to maintain a sexual-harassment declare, and after Chris Cuomo was once himself accused of sexual misconduct.
As The Post has reported, Carlson’s firing got here not up to every week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued the community for airing false claims that it had conspired to rig the 2020 presidential election, for $787.5 million.
As a part of the invention procedure, personal messages written by means of Carlson and different Fox staff have been made public, showcasing interior tensions over the verdict to name the 2020 presidential election for President Biden and over the following airing of conspiracy theories in terms of the election by means of sure Fox News anchors. The messages additionally confirmed Carlson disparaging Trump in personal, whilst he praised the previous president in public.
Carlson has no longer but spoken publicly about his ouster. But The Post reported that he realized that he was once being fired in a telephone name Monday morning. Fox executives additionally gave the impression to not have given him an opportunity to mention good-bye to his sizable target audience: In its Monday statement pronouncing that Fox and Carlson had “agreed to part ways,” the community mentioned that Carlson’s remaining display came about Friday.
Lemon’s departure from CNN comes because the community is overhauling its programming in a bid to reinforce rankings. The display Lemon co-anchored, “CNN This Morning,” were suffering to draw extra audience because it debuted in November.
He additionally confronted grievance after he mentioned all over a dialogue about competency assessments for older presidential applicants that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley “isn’t in her prime, sorry — when a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
He took time off-air however quickly returned. At the time, CNN leader govt Chris Licht mentioned in a memo that the community will have to grasp other people responsible but additionally foster “a culture in which people can own, learn and grow from their mistakes.”
Yet Monday’s announcement of Lemon’s departure from the community didn’t move easily. After the news got here out, the previous prime-time host said he was once “stunned” by means of CNN’s resolution and claimed that community leaders didn’t inform him without delay that he were fired.
CNN called Lemon’s observation “inaccurate” and mentioned “he was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”
Lemon additionally alluded to “larger issues at play” in his firing however didn’t elaborate.
Jeremy Barr, Sarah Ellison, Paul Farhi and Elahe Izadi contributed to this record.