Posted on 04/09/2011 11:26:29 AM PDT by NOCO229
As a longtime News Corp.-watcher, Prince-Talal-watcher, Talal-News-Corp-watcher, I'm not saying, I'm just saying:
Wednesday, March 30, 2011: James Murdoch, youngest son of Rupert Murdoch, "cemented his position as his father's eventual heir to run the entertainment conglomerate when he was elevated this week to the No. 3 position in the company's executive ranks." To help things set better, he's moving from London to New York.
April 4, 2011: Bill O'Reilly says Pastor Terry Jones "has blood on his hands" after Jones burns a copy of the Koran in Florida and Muslims in Afghanistan murder people.
April 4, 2011: To discuss the mayhem and murder that was the Afghan Muslim response to the burning of a copy of the Koran in Florida, Sean Hannity scheduled Zuhdi Jasser, whose "private" sharia is so irrelevant to classical Islam that his commentary is endlessly confusing at best, and Ahmed Bedier, longtime spokesmodel for a constellation of organization related and linked to such jihad groups as Hamas and Hezbollah,
April 6, 2011: Fox News and Glenn Beck agree to "divorce."
What connects these disparate incidents? Beside a short time-frame, I don't know. I do know James Murdoch is known for his trash talk about Israel (sez the Palestinians "were kicked out of their f— homes and had nowhere to f— live"), his green enthusiasms (News Corp. is the first entertainment conglom to be "carbon neutral") and for being a former hip hop impressario (wow; not my dream date). The 38-year-old is also very, very close to 56-year-old Prince Talal, and was Talal's choice to succeed Murdoch (chalk one up for Talal).
Not one to let politics to get in the way of profits, I am sure, it is also the case that as a Talal-pal (not to mention everything else), James is likely to keep certain things out of the way of Fox politics. I would imagine that Hannity's recent maiden voyages into "sharia" talk (bet that's all over with) and Beck's ongoing explorations of sharia and Islam don't fit his bill. That stuff's been buttoned up for ten years now on Fox; no reason to spoil a good brand now with free inquiry into the ideology that drives our mortal enemies....
I understand that another host that’s more vanilla will most likely generate more advertising revenue, but you indicate they will get the same ratings as Beck and I don’t agree. If they were so pleased with Gibson and Ingraham, they’d still be in that slot.
First, I said they (whomever replaces Beck) will get about the same ratings. Look at Beck's most recent ratings. He barely outperforms Bret Baeir and Cavuto. His replacement may suffer some, but I rather doubt that Beck's ratings will be halved, or worse - which is what it would take for FNC to not win the time-slot.
As for Gibson, he wasn't fired. He did not want to continue his daily television show anymore and do his radio show too. So, he picked the radio show. FNC was happy with his ratings, as he always comfortably won that time slot.
I have no idea how Ingraham did in the ratings. She was only in that slot for a trial period, and she just didn't do very well in that kind of role.
Gibson was decent, although he didn’t uncover nearly as much as Beck. The fact is, anybody FNC puts in that slot will crush Matthews and Blitzer
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