Sean Hannity Cries Himself A River
There has been a lot of upheaval at Fox News lately. Gretchen Carlson went nuclear on Ailes and the misogynistic rapey culture that Fox cultivated over decades, and nothing has been the same there since.
That is a good thing. It may have been a limited, even if loud start, but Carlson initiated ripples in the Murdoch empire that could not be easily contained, even with the ample crisis suppression talents of hired liar Ted Wells and his firm, Paul Weiss. The once closed barn door was open, and all horses and carts were suddenly out.
The Murdoch cabal, give them an iota of credit, realized the situation….kind of, and cut bait with Ailes in record speed for a bigly man that supposedly was untouchable and was a bff of Trump.
Probably motivated by Rupert’s sons, James and Lachlan, but still correct, even if horribly behind the curve of human decency and sexual harassment law. But so much has happened since Gretchen Carlson cooked the supposed golden goose, Roger Ailes, that common lore held responsible for all the Fox News golden eggs.
Whatever the impetus, Roger Ailes was summarily dismissed when obviously necessary. The Murdochs and Fox News probably thought that might contain the exposure of their decades long belligerent misogyny. But, no, then came the claims against Bill O’Reilly. An odious asshole every bit as despicable as Ailes. And one known as exactly that since the Andrea Makris out of court settlement over O’Reilly’s loofah phone fetishes back in 2004.
Instead, Fox not only kept O’Reilly until they could no longer, they kept Ailes Number Two, Bill Schein and attendant protective underlings in place. Until they no longer could. That started today with Schein’s ouster. And Hannity is floating like an overboard deck chair in the seas away from the Titanic, away from the mothership. (Killer graphic by the one and only Darth – click to enlarge!). But the suddenly disposable Sean Hannity deck chair is drifting away from the ignorant and misogynistic shipwreck he helped perpetuate all these years.
In any normal corporation, especially such a public facing one like Fox News, they would have culled the problems out immediately after the Ailes embarrassment. But not Fox. Oh no. Instead, Fox and Fox News allowed O’Reilly and Sean Hannity to bellow with umbrage about the public admissions of their owners of misogyny and bigotry. Fox, as a company, had not learned their lesson going back to Andrea Makris in 2004, nor insured that their precious bought and paid for “talent” did.
But now the Murdoch sons, James and Lachlan, are protecting the family name by cleaning up their father’s idiocy at warp speed in a way that the gel headed sons in the Trump family can only dream of. Today, the Murdochs the younger have outed Bill Schein. Via Digby, a quote from Andrew Kirell at Daily Beast:
Sean Hannity is looking to leave Fox News, according to sources, following the resignation of Fox News co-president Bill Shine officially on Monday.
Schein was Hannity’s long-time ally whom he personally recommended the network hire two decades ago to produce Hannity & Colmes.
So, cry me a river Sean Hannity you stuporous dolt. In recent days, Hannity warned it would be the “total end” of Fox News should Shine leave, and he rallied conservative activists to back him up.
Initially, insiders said, Hannity’s army of lawyers had hoped to discuss with Fox ways of protecting his 8-year-old primetime show, amid fears that Lachlan and James Murdoch—fresh off the ousting of Bill O’Reilly—were looking to push the network away from hard-right politics.
Yeah, good riddance. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya, Sean. Go fuck yourself in hell.
[Okay, went with that version of Cry Me a River because it is sooo much better audio and video production wise than the one from Mad Dogs and Englishmen (with Leon Russell, of course) that I really envisioned.]
And this years award for *Great Moments in Conservative Human Bonfires* goes to….
And here I thought it was gonna be a shitty day.
Well, it wasn’t quite so fast – just a week or 2 ago, they put some female moderator on a roundtable in what seemed to be a dress designed to invite ugly comment (and seated in a way to give most parading puerile view), and sure enough, one of the male commentators of course had to say, “you’re giving our viewers a raise right now” or something equally stupid and sexist, and this was like 1 day after O’Reilly was fired. Dana Perino looked literally shell-shocked during the show. So many brainfarts, so little time…. But yes, they’ll recover, Tara calls in the wind…
bmaz, your screenshot of Darth’s great illustration does not expand as advertised. It renders a new instance of the same sized image.
Hmmm, apparently how pictures get embiggened has changed. Click on it, takes you to a single photo page and THEN click on that one!
g(Jesse Watters vacation Ivanka Trump)
It really must suck to work at Faux Noise.
Especially if you are female.
Before we delight too much in the Murdoch boys cleaning up their family image, let’s be clear about why they want to clean up that image. It’s not about some road-to-Damascus, come-to-Jesus moment in which they suddenly have seen the light and are repenting of years of their family’s actions. It’s not because they are into breaking glass ceilings and treating women with dignity in the workplace. It’s not because they suddenly believe that Good Morals are Good for Morale.
No, it’s about the Benjamins. Or, should I say, the Pounds Sterling:
Pro tip: do not trust a Murdoch farther than you can throw them.
Who controls Ofcom? Do the Tories, since they’re in power? Because I can see the deal being scuttled if Corbyn wins in a few weeks.
SOOOooo, has anything been proved against any of these Fox Bureau Boys, or is this Faux Sex Scandal stuff? Mob Law? Leaping to Lynch ’em? Or, as the religious-political say, “Democracy in Action”?
Is Emptywheel joining the mob? Rushing to protect the supposed Sanctities of supposedly Unsullied Miss Kittys supposedly compromised by expressions of lewdities (visual, verbal, implicit and imagined) perceived presented, or intended, or perceptible in looks, leers or expressions on faces of (as everyone knows) always lascivious Males?
What the Hell, Private Prisons are returning the Plantation model, the Thirteenth Amendment allowing “involuntary servitude” (enslavement) so long as you ‘convict’ of a ‘crime’ (can be victim-less, or even ‘administrative infraction’ or ‘rule violation’), so who’s to say lynch-mobbing is not fair fame for revival, too?
And there is, too, that this Faux Sex situation is modernly politically-correct, in contrast to the OJ Simpson and Bill Cosby cases, the what-cha-call-’ems you and the rest of the mobsters are lynching being white-skinned ones!
So, go for it, America! Show the World that Lynch-Mob Reaction is not a Trumpian or just Republican phenomenon! Show ’em it’s All-American! “American Democracy” in Action!
Yeah, Fox News paid out tens of millions of dollars and canned their #1 ratings draw and CEO over a politically correct nothingburger.
/s
Nice to be you. Never seen sexual harassment in real life?
Evangelista,
“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”
Oh, Evangelista, you long winded insincere troll, thank you so much for chiming in.
You are such an idiot troll, that I have to ask where you came from? Or are you just an idiot?
Have to admit that Evangelista may just be a moron, and not a troll.
What do I do??
bmaz,
You ask, “What do I do??”
Maybe take a couple of night-school courses in Law? Learn to think like a lawyer?
Or maybe just a Civics course, to learn about “Presumption of Innocence” and what it means?
I’m not saying it will help you, but I’d like to know, if you decide to try…