My understanding is Tucker Carlson is still under contract with Fox News. He is still drawing a salary from them. Albeit, he is officially suspended and obligated by the non-compete clause, he still can freely speak as a private citizen. Fox News will not release him from the Terms and Conditions of the contract. This means he cannot be hired by another news outlet or compete with Fox News.

Tucker Carlson is doing these interviews without being paid..... More on that in minute. You're asking right now, how is it then that Tucker Carlson is having all these interviews? As a private citizen, Tucker has a First Amendment right to speak. This is how. And Fox News initially attempted to silence Tucker Carlson by sending him a Cease and Desist letter. However, the lawyers at Fox have realized there is nothing contractually Carlson signed that obligates him to do so. In fact, the contract may have a clause that specifically permits Tucker leeway in expressing his First Amendment rights. The significance of this for Tucker is extraordinary. It means that Fox News would in all probability loose in court if they pursued their case in court. Not only that, I suspect it would be very costly to the Murdoch's financially in the public setting.

Elon Musk has guaranteed Tucker Carlson his own private Twitter space. This is huge win-win for both Musk and Carlson. Other platforms like Rumble have putatively given Carlson his own space for doing the same. What is ingenious about what Tucker Carlson has done here, is that Fox News is actually paying for all of Tucker Carlson's First Amendment airtime and there's nothing they can do about it legally. With Tucker's right to Free Speech, it's a catch-22 for Fox News. They are damned if they do maintain the contract with Tucker and damned if they terminate the contract with Tucker Carlson. The bottom line is the Murdoch's are facing the better of the worse scenarios at this point in time.