The Fox News palace coup by James and Lachlan Murdoch is over. The boys have lost. Rupert Murdoch has named two of his lieutenants, Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, co-chiefs of Fox News.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
With Roger Ailes ousted, James and Lachlan looked like they might take over Fox News and clean house. A week ago, one source of mine said, “The whole second floor could go.”
Alas, just as in other countries ruled by despots, Fox News has stood back a revolution. Nothing will change. The people who were running the network under Ailes continue to run the network without Ailes. Everyone stays in place including the oft-mentioned Dianne Brandi, Ailes’s corporate lawyer. The people who know where the bodies were buried will keep running the cemetery.
New York Magazine’s intrepid Gabriel Sherman, meantime, points out that when Lachlan Murdoch was removed from his old job by Ailes running Fox TV stations in 2005, it was Abernethy who succeeded him. So Rupert, who we thought was drowsy from a long honeymoon with Mick Jagger’s ex, Jerry Hall, has rebuked his own kid again.
Wait til that Thanksgiving dinner!
