At Fox News, co-president Bill Shine is out. He had been accused in multiple lawsuits of enabling the sexual harassment of female Fox employees by now-fired network head Roger Ailes; his “resignation” follows quickly after the ouster of top Fox host Bill O’Reilly, accused in lawsuits of a serial pattern of sexual harassment and other abusive behavior.
Whether the ousters at Fox are due to a Murdoch family change of heart over the prevalent culture at the network or a forced response to an onslaught of now-public employee lawsuits will remain unclear, but Shine may not be the last big name to leave the network. Shine ally Sean Hannity, an adamant defender of all the now-booted names and a man whose Twitter behaviors have gotten increasingly … erratic ... may be on the verge of abandoning the network as well.
As Fox flounders, MSNBC executives are seeking to rebuild the network into something of a Fox alternative.
From inside, the news about Wallace and Hewitt was seen as just two more steps toward the full execution of the vision of Andy Lack, the NBC News executive who oversees MSNBC. He has made quite clear his plan to move the cable news network away from its bedrock liberalism and toward a more centrist approach personified by Brian Williams — or even in a conservative bent, as typified by hosts like Megyn Kelly or Greta Van Susteren, who Lack brought over from Fox News. [...]
“Hayes, Maddow, O’Donnell ― the entire primetime lineup is doing record numbers and Lack can’t stand it. It makes him furious,” said one well-placed MSNBC source [...]
A move towards a more right-friendly public face would not be the first time the network responded to a hard-right administration by sidelining the network’s liberal critics; in 2003, the network fired host Phil Donohue over his criticism of the Bush administration’s march to war in Iraq; an internal network memo
called the host a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war” while “our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2006—Pelosi to Hastert: House Needs To Investigate Cunningham Prostitution Claim:
“Mr. Cunningham may not have been alone in this corrupt behavior. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have recently reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating allegations that Mr. Cunningham and other Members of the House of Representatives were provided with prostitutes and the free use of a limousine and hotel suites by two of the contractors implicated in the bribery charges.
Mr. Speaker, these disclosures, along with other indictments and allegations of unethical behavior, demand strong action by congressional leaders to uphold the integrity of the House. Since these new charges uniquely affect the House of Representatives, I believe that, regardless of what action may be taken in the criminal investigation, the House must act.”
On
today’s Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin helps us catch up on everything we can cram in from the “100 Days” weekend: Duterte invite, Trump on the Civil War, Gorka & DeMint’s exits, the return of zombie Trumpcare, Milo Inc., the “tax plan,” gov’t funding, Conway’s SCOTUS spin & more!
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