Buh-bye Rupert. Please let the door hit you on the way out. Repeatedly.
Well well. This is going to be interesting.
This has a great deal of potential for schism (and I use that term deliberately, given the cult-like aspects of the Fox brand), if not outright civil war. Given how Fox News has been the tail wagging the GOP dog, any shift closer to the center (which, at this point, is practically a statistical guarantee, given any random shift, al la Drunkardâs Walk) will result in out-and-out hysteria among the rank-and-file viewersâif not the staff themselves.
Of course, that depends on how the investors treat the media conglomerate after they oust the younger Murdouch from power. A breakup/civil war is certainly in the cards. Thisâll certainly be interesting, especially given that weâre about to enter an election cycle, and the main propaganda device of the far right just had the hand on the tiller switch offâŚ
I didnât know horsemen of the apocalypse got to retire. Does this mean heâs given up on finishing the job?
If Roger Ailes stays on, there probably wonât be much of a shift in how FN operates.
No sympathy for the shareholders here.
Curious about the timing. Health? Scandal was about to break? Heâs not the kind of guy to decide itâs time to put more emphasis on his golf game.
It would have to be a heck of a scandal given what heâs weathered so far
âRupert Murdoch Squashed In Freak Meteorite Strikeâ is the headline I wanted, buy hey-ho.
Do we know which host body Rupertâs tainted essence is expected to migrate into to continue his reign?
I like that Fox News comes under his âEntertainmentâ company rather than his âNewsâ one.
Hooolly shitknockers this sort of analysis is why I come to BB (or one of the reasons). Hadnât thought of that and I hope youâre entirely on the money. Of course, those on the right would cry for the same kind of right shift in media outlets perceived as left-leaningâŚwhich, I guess, would be all media outlets other than Fox.
Yeah, I remember reading that Ailes has all the influence, not Murdoch.
I suppose we could hope for a sacking by whomever the future non-Murdoch CEO ends up being, at the behest of the shareholders and board.
Murderâdoch! Goodbye and good riddance to bad rubbish!
If they like money, there will be no shift.
Hopefully this means heâs suffering from some kind of degrading and fatal illness
Yeah, Roger Ailes is 75. Apparently, concentrated hate can keep you alive for quite a long time (Murdoch is 84), so I expect he has another 50 years in him (possibly 100 if he continues on a regiment of purified puppy tears).
A couple of years back, there was a very interesting poll done (by the Republican Party itself), where people were asked who they perceived as being the âleadersâ for each political party. For the Democrats, it wasnât terribly surprisingâPres. Obama, the Clintons, Kennedy, Gore, Pelosi, etc. But for the Republican Party, those that were perceived as being the âleadersâ of the party were not political leaders, but were instead right-wing media personalitiesâOâReilly, Limbaugh, Beck, etc.
What this means, in practical terms, is that Fox News and other right-wing media commentators are the de facto leaders of the GOPâwhat they say is listened to, what they focus on, the Tea Party base of the GOP will also focus on. However, the political goals of the GOP and the actual political leaders of the party are divergent from those of Fox News. Even if the GOP political leaders were interested in compromise and working with the Democrats (which is a hell of a big âIfâ) Fox News isnât interested in compromise. Theyâre a propaganda outlet, and they arenât there to deliver nuance and understanding, but are there to feed conflict, fear, uncertainty and doubt into their viewing audience via those identified media personality âleaders.â Afterall, who will listen to their messages of hate and division (and who will pay to advertise on their stations?) if sanity starts to break out?
So thisâll be very interesting to see, because, as weâve seen before, any deviation from the hardline orthodoxy of the Tea Party is greeted with hysteria, whipped up by Fox. But what happens when Fox starts to deviate from the very standards that theyâve been trumpeting for years? And it will happen, because the junior Murdoch is not up to the standards of his sire in ruthlessness and boardroom political acumen. One day, perhaps soon, heâll be forced out, and the dynasty that made the feudal empire of Fox dump an appreciable percentage of a billion dollars backing the losing candidate in 2012 will be deposed. After that, well, all bets are off on what direction Fox will take.
sits back, munches popcorn
Either way, itâll be interesting.
