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Fox News Tag

Eric Bolling started at FOX covering business news but quickly climbed the ladder of success, first as a guest host on the O'Reilly Factor and then to the center chair on The Five. This year, he was given his own show called the FOX News Specialists. Now it's all over. We covered the controversy in two earlier posts: Friday it was announced that the network decided to part ways with Bolling.

What in the world is going on at the FOX News channel? In the past year, Megan Kelly and Greta Van Susteren left the network. Roger Ailes was forced out and Bill O'Reilly left when it looked like he was going to face an investigation. Eric Bolling has now been suspended over an allegation that he sent lewd text messages.

Now former Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz shocked many when he abruptly announced he'd be quitting Congress before the end of his term. In a recent interview, Chaffetz insisted his decision was personal, that he was disappointed by the state of politics, and that he and his wife made the decision together for personal reasons. Chaffetz alluded to living on a tight budget, but only this week did he confirm money played a role in the decision-making process.

Roger Ailes, who founded and built news powerhouse Fox News, died today at the age of 77. No one has released a cause of death. His wife released this statement via CNBC:
In a statement to Drudge Report, his wife Elizabeth Ailes said, "I am profoundly sad and heartbroken to report that my husband, Roger Ailes, passed away this morning. Roger was a loving husband to me, to his son Zachary, and a loyal friend to many. He was also a patriot, profoundly grateful to live in a country that gave him so much opportunity to work hard, to rise—and to give back. During a career that stretched over more than five decades, his work in entertainment, in politics, and in news affected the lives of many millions. And so even as we mourn his death, we celebrate his life..."

On his Fox News show last night, Tucker Carlson ripped Mika Brzezinski for quoting, on yesterday's Morning Joe, unflattering things that Kellyanne Conway allegedly said about Donald Trump in private, off-the-air conversations. Tucker cited Mika as an example of journalists who have "degraded and humiliated themselves" out of their anti-Trump "hysteria." Tucker: "TV anchors almost never reveal what their guests have said off-camera, and for good reason. People come to TV studios so they can speak on TV. They do not come with the expectation that their private conversations will wind up broadcast to the country."

During today's Morning Joe discussion of the ouster of Bill O'Reilly at Fox News, Joe Scarborough asked, "Do they remake over the entire network? Is anybody else in the [Murdoch] family's crosshairs right now?" Replied New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters: "I think you have to look at somebody like Sean Hannity, and question whether or not his almost propaganda-like attitude and programming every night is going to be acceptable in the minds of the family, which is clearly trying to shift the network in a different direction."

Bill O'Reilly's Fox News career now swims with the fishes. The conventional wisdom is that after the NY Times exposed a history of sexual harassment  settlements, and two new accusers came forward, advertisers "fled" the show, forcing the hand of News Corp and the Murdochs. That conventional wisdom is only partially correct -- advertisers didn't flee, they were chased away by the same organized effort as was used against Glenn Beck once upon a time, and Rush Limbaugh in 2012. Longtime readers will recall my extensive and groundbreaking research into the StopRush operation just after Limbaugh’s comments about Sandra Fluke in 2012, for which he apologized.

A growing pile of sexual harassment allegations resulted in Bill O'Reilly's departure from Fox News. Up through Tuesday night, O'Reilly's spokesperson was assuring reporters he would return to the network April 24th.

On Wednesday night, Virgil Bernero, the mayor of sanctuary city Lansing, Michigan, told Tucker Carlson that if his police force were to enforce immigration laws, it would be seen as an "occupying force." An incredulous Tucker responded, "people come into your country illegally, your job is to enforce the laws as a police officer, and you somehow feel guilty because you're an occupying force?" Bernero then played the white privilege card,  "it's easy for white men like us . . . who enjoy what we enjoy . . . " Tucker could take no more: "I was taking you seriously at the beginning, but this is just buffoonish."

When Donald Trump sent out his series of tweets about alleged "tapping" of his phones and/or Trump Tower by Obama, the instant media reaction was that Trump made the allegation without presenting any proof. As if proof were needed at the time of an accusation for a media that has put Trump on trial for the last 6-8 months based on innuendo about Trump campaign ties to Russia. As pointed out repeatedly, there is zero proof in the public record of such media and Democrat accusations, and no proof was demanded by the media. In fact, Democratic Senator Chris Coons recently suggested there were incriminating transcripts of calls involving Trump or his associates:

Wednesday, President Trump withdrew President Obama's transgender bathroom mandates. Though the Obama administration claimed the mandates were simply guidance, failure to comply could've resulted in the loss of federal funding. Needless to say, the LGBTQ community was up in arms, leading long-time Democratic advisor Zac Petkansas to call the Trump White House "monsters."

It was a remarkable live-TV moment. During Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, reporter Griff Jenkins was at the scene of an anti-Trump demonstration in DC where a fire had been set in the street. Suddenly, a young boy [maybe 10-11] stepped up to say that he "kind of started the fire." When Jenkins asked why he started the fire, the boy, who identified himself as "Carter," said "because I felt like it and I'm just sort of saying, screw the president."