Updating former Fox staff (and two in the crosshairs) after the jump ...
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Three years ago, I wrote an account of how some former on-screen figures at Fox left not due to scandal (Roger Ailes, Bill Shine, Bill-O, Kimberly Guilfoyle, et al), nor those who quit over sexual harassment (Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Andrea Tantaros), those who left for (arguably) a better gig (Sebastian Gorka, Ed Rollins) and those who were publicly let go for weirding out (Glenn Beck, Bob Beckel), being a bad prognosticator (Dick Morris) or just lazy (Sarah Palin). Instead, for philosophical reasons (good and bad).
You can read my original essay at this link.
Now …... an update
Some of these are widely known — last November, pundits such as Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg (formerly of the National Review) left due to (they say) the rantings of Tucker Carlson. The next month, Sunday host Chris Wallace left to join a CNN streaming platform — as former Fox pundit Bernard Goldberg noted.
Hayes and Goldberg founded an online journal in early 2020 called The Dispatch (following the collapse of The Weekly Standard) and one of their subsequent hires was someone at Fox not so widely known — and fired for political reasons. This was Chris Stirewalt, a ten-year veteran of the network who was political editor going into the fateful 2020 presidential election night.
When the network’s Decision Desk chief Amon Mishkin called the state of Arizona for Joe Biden at 11:20 PM Eastern — ahead of any other major network, and which caused the on-air hosts to demand an explanation — it was Stirewalt who came on-air to defend the decision by his team. This, of course, led to a backlash from TFG and MAGA nation and — even though the call was proven correct (other than in 45’s mind) — it led to his firing, adding “It was a terrible feeling of humiliation that you have to tell your kids that you lost your job.”
Returning to one of the more sordid cases: host Ed Henry was fired in the summer of 2020 for "willful sexual misconduct in the workplace" — with numerous allegations of harassment and still faces a lawsuit from one of those who argues that Henry went even further and raped her.
Another famous instance of a resignation did not come as a surprise to many … except for how it happened.
News host Shepard Smith had worked as a reporter at various television stations before joining Fox at its inception in 1996 — and one of those was for this show.
In doing a (more-or-less) straight news broadcast: he had garnered some anger from MAGA nation for calling-out some of the lies from the 45 Administration (such as the phony Uranium One charge) and which only grew over time. He was married to a woman from 1987-1993, then came out as gay in 2017 (more anger). He signed a major new contract in 2018 and left the network in October 2019, later joining CNBC as a host (citing the constant misinformation the evening hosts were peddling). What was a surprise: his on-air announcement … that very few in the network knew was coming.
The first 2:30 was Shep’s on-air resignation … then, just watch the next minute, as the next program hosted by Neil Cavuto (who joined the network at the same time) was visibly stunned. I wonder if he sees the handwriting-on-the-wall for himself, someday?
Neil Cavuto actually served as a White House intern during the Carter administration (even interviewing him on-air in 2018) and began working at CNBC at its inception in 1989 covering business news — which he has continued at Fox (also joining at its inception in 1996 along with Shepard Smith). He is a reliable right-wing voice on policy (complaining endlessly on taxes) yet last December Justin Peters of Slate described him as focused on “the stock market and business stuff, seems to believe in science and wastes little time on culture-war nonsense”.
Yet not-good-enough for MAGA nation … ripping 45 on the 2018 Helsinki love-fest with Putin … then reading on-air the hate mail he received over it. His most noted anti-Trump rant came in 2019, when 45 started getting annoyed at the network.
But he has been most annoying to MAGA nation on … vaccines. Cavuto has had not two, but three underlying conditions: a diagnosis of cancer in the 1980’s, a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1997, and had heart surgery in 2016. As with all Fox employees, he is fully vaccinated … and urged his viewers to do so, as well. In October, 2021 he contracted Covid … and received death threats after stating the vaccines saved his immuno-compromised self. Then in February, he survived a second bout of Covid, and again grateful to have been fully vaccinated.
Cavuto said that this time around was a "far, far more serious strand, what doctors call COVID pneumonia" and he was in the ICU for "quite a while."
He also appeared to dismiss claims that his hospitalization was due to the vaccine itself, calling that a "grassy knoll theory."
"Some of you who've wanted to put me out of my misery darn near got what you wished for," he added. "So, sorry to disappoint you! But no, the vaccine didn't cause that ... My very compromised immune system did."
Makes me wonder if he can survive much longer there. The same could be asked of Fox national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin— yet once again, a hire in the network’s first year. The first time she really hit-the-big-time was in 2020 when she confirmed that 45 had often referred to soldiers as ‘losers’ — which led to 45 calling for her firing.
She spent three years in Moscow as a reporter and has taken-to-task many an on-air Fox host (Steve Doocy to Harris Faulkner) on the situation in Ukraine. One name she fact-checked is a blowhard who is now running (for the second time) for the US Senate here in New Hampshire. Retired brigadier general Don Bolduc was euphoric when the odds-on-favorite to challenge our Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan for re-election (GOP Gov. Chris Sununu) decided against running last autumn. (Haven’t heard Com-symp in years !!)
“I derailed Gov. Sununu from running for Senate”. Bolduc also called Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer who’s in business with Saudi Arabian companies that give money to terrorists. He’s a globalist world-government guy.”
After Bolduc clamored for the US to get directly involved in Ukraine, she said:
“Clearly, Brigadier General Bolduc is not a student of history – he’s a politician, he ran for Senate in New Hampshire and failed. He’s not a military strategist, and to suggest that the US would put indirect fire or special operations or CIA on the ground to give Putin any sort of excuse to broaden this conflict is extremely dangerous talk at a time like this.”
She also took on former 45 military adviser Doug Macgregor who said on Fox:
Russians and Ukrainians were “indistinguishable” from one another, and when asked whether Russia should be allowed to take as much of Ukraine as he likes, Macgregor said: “Yes, absolutely.”
Griffin came on air and swiftly accused Macgregor of sounding like a Putin “apologist”: because “there were so many distortions in what he just said”.
Just recently, she choked-up on air over slain colleagues, and she has battled breast cancer for more than a decade. Hoping she stays-on for the valuable reporting she does.
With the eighty-eight year-old bluesman John Mayall set to retire after two final shows this weekend … let’s close with one of his classic songs.
Now, on to Top Comments:
From susans:
In today’s New Day Café— after revealing that Marjorie Taylor Green warns that nuclear war would cause food shortages, today’s host samanthab says Thank you, Captain Obvious.
From Lex Lurker:
In the diary by kentkangley about the requested resignations of two GOP candidates still on the presidential fitness council — dana vicalvi's comment on Mehmet Oz's latest sniveling.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by the redoubtable David Neiwert about the Michigan militiamen now on trial for their plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, three recommendations: sockpuppet for the grotesque nature of the Boogaloo movement, dadadata for citing a much more noble noted figure in history, and tulsakatz for an apt analogy to a horrendous noted figure in history.
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment featuring that photo.
TOP PHOTOSMarch 23rd, 2022
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
5) Another grifter with a fancy degree. by BlueCatDem +1428) So very sad all these men dead. by TexMex +10711) A lot of them are just kids. by sfinx +10313) New: … by Lefty Coaster +9616) HMMMMMM…….. by Swordopolis +9118) I know this look by Denise Oliver Velez +8922) Ukraine — keep pounding them. by AnotherAmericanLie +8624) Grilling by Denise Oliver Velez +8530) Thanks for the Coverage team daily kos … by eeff +77