On Thursday Attorney General William Barr, Donald Trump”s henchman, met with Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch in New York.
Why would such a meeting occur? Because Trump sent Barr with a message. In the last few weeks, both Fox News and the New York Post had gone against Trump.
Not only were Fox News on air personalities dissing Trump, they were also cutting away from his rallies. Then Fox News ran a poll saying 51% of Americans were in favor of impeachment and removal of Trump. That was the last straw. Barr was clearly sent to reset the situation with Murdoch because Fox is the Trump approved network.
Since the Barr-Murdoch meeting, Shepard Smith, the network’s number 1 news anchor and chief critic, has been forced off the network after 23 years. Why he would agree to say he was resigning instead of telling the truth I guess has to do with money. I’m sorry if that’s the case. I thought Shep had more dignity than that. But he had a year and a half to go at least on his contract, and wanted that pay out.
Shep’s ouster is disgusting. It does mean that neo-Nazis Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity won the war. It also means that Lachlan Murdoch caved to his father. The Murdoch children would like all the bad stuff to go away. James Murdoch, aka Michael Coreleone, is trying to make the crime family seem legit by investing in things like Vice Media and the Tribeca Film Festival. But getting rid of Shep is like the killing of Fredo.
Meantime, the New York Post has been brought to heel also. Last night they posted a story claiming that the Fox News impeachment poll was a fraud. “A poll weighted for party affiliation would have concluded that 44.9% favored impeachment and 44.4% opposed it, a Post analysis has concluded.”
The next person on the chopping block, I’m afraid, will be Judge Andrew Napolitano. His screen time has been cut way back since he turned against Trump and started actually explaining the law to his audience. Judge Napolitano is the last person at Fox News to speak truth to power. He’s a brilliant and brave man. But without Shep as cover, the Judge is a marked man. I expect to see him on CNN soon.
Someone wrote yesterday that Roger Ailes would never have allowed this to happen. They are wrong. Ailes was a coward, and did whatever Murdoch told him. Lots of good people came to and left Fox when their true colors — that they were decent, human professionals — were exposed. In the end, Ailes cherished his power and money more than any kind of integrity. If Murdoch had told him to garrote Shep on air during an anti-Trump news report, Ailes would have sent John Moody down with a rope and a piano wire.
