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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Can't be sure that there's any connection between Barr's visit with Murdoch, and Shep Smith's departure from Fox News, but the lack of transparency certainly leaves a bad look for the Fox.
Also, what Rick Wilson says. |
Smith has been on the edge of leaving for some time. He's been making crazy cash for so long, he doesn't even need to work anymore. Hell, he hasn't had to work in years. And obviously, for personal reasons, the guy has been at odds with Fox's catering to social conservatives.
He also has gravitas the network craves. I doubt they fired him. I think he fired them. The place is supposedly a lunatic asylum, more fractured than the fictional network in HBO's
Succession, which is based on the Murdochs and Fox.
The Murdoch kids supposedly want to take Fox to the middle, but the old man can't keep his hands out of the network. Every time the kids tried to tack to the center, Rupert would kneecap the effort. The result is an economically weak news division chaffing under the pressure to stay right exerted by the opinion division that makes all the money.
I don't think Murdoch or his kids can control his opinion people anymore. These people drive enormous ratings and cash into the company. Without that right lean, the network would sink to CNN or MSNBC level ratings.
If Fox News were a stock, however, it'd be something to short in a few years. As its older viewers die off and are not replaced by new younger viewers (as people aren't watching TV anymore), being #1 in cable news is being the world's most profitable maker of buggy whips.
And this can't happen fast enough, as cable news is perhaps the most socially damaging thing on earth behind Facebook.
