Bill Sammon and Chris Stirewalt out at Fox News

American Thinker ^ | 21 Jul, 2021 | Thomas Lifson

[MtnClimber]

Two executives involved in the early call of Arizona for Joe Biden on Election Night, angering many conservatives, are no longer employed at the cable network whose ratings took a subsequent nosedive.

Two executives involved in the early call of Arizona for Joe Biden on Election Night, angering many conservatives, are no longer employed at the cable network whose ratings took a subsequent nosedive. Both have been lightning rods for conservatives since the election. The Associated Press reports:

Bill Sammon, senior vice president and managing editor at Fox’s Washington bureau, announced his retirement to staff members on Monday. On Tuesday, as part of a restructuring of Fox’s digital operations, politics editor Chris Stirewalt was let go.

[JonPreston]

I don’t miss Fox and I don’t miss politics. I hope DJT can launch alternative news programing, but I doubt the FCC and the other licensing agencies will allow him to earn a living.

[Travis McGee]

The only good to come from the ritual suicide of FOX News is that millions are now aware of and watching OANN and NewsMax.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””I think these firings are Fox News trying to slow their leftward drift in an effort to recover some viewership. I think that will happen because our viewing alternatives are nothing more than various versions of old style Soviet Pravda which is all government bull-shiite all the time.”””

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What you are saying is like the only alternative to voting for a Democrat is to vote for a leftist Republican. There will soon be alternatives there.

Meanwhile, I have moved from FOX NEWS to NEWSMAX and REAL AMERICA’S VOICE to get a full dose of political news each day.

And let us not forget, FOX NEWS has degenerated into being 100% political news.

[MAGAthon]

Chris Hahn is another regular who causes me to instantly change channels.

[A_perfect_lady]

Never going to watch Fox again. Sorry. That knife wound in my back still hurts.

Same here. In fact, I cannot think of another time in my life I felt this way. I hate them now at the visceral level.

[Maine Mariner]

With other alternatives, I won’t go back. Just as I have never gone back to Drudge after his attacks on President Trump after Charlottesville.

[EliRoom8]

This can’t be happening!!! We have heard from many Freepers that the management of FoxNews DOESN’T CARE about falling ratings.

[Cboldt]

The people you see on air are actors. Just like Hollywood actors. And just like Hollywood actors they have personal opinions which may or may not align with the character they are playing.

Another symptom of the problem is that the public sees Hollywood as a source of fact and structure material. As a oracle with sound social and moral principle.

The people have abandoned moral absolutes, and as is the case with human nature, is invested in justifying their own sinful conduct and thought.

[mad_as_he$$]

“Stirewalt and Sammons are the sacrificial lambs.”

exactly. Tooooo little and two late for something that never should of happened. I was tried of Stirewalt pretending to understand America, he clearly doesn’t and never will.

[nathanbedford]

Hurting financially, Fox News is obviously taking half measures to restore its place at the apex.

Even before Fox lost half its viewership as a result of its shenanigans on election eve and afterwards, boycotts and simple intimidation of advertisers had brought the network to a place where the single most popular and effective voice on television, Tucker Carlson, was reduced to support by low-level advertisers selling vegetable slicers.

Therefore, Fox today is a place where half measures will avail nothing nor is it at all clear that the "Murdoch kiddies" will permit the real top- to- bottom, root and branch Reform that alone can save Fox.

But the problem at Fox News is not just economics, the problem also involves the network's attachment to the establishment core of the Republican Party. The Republican base has filed for divorce from the establishment thus posing a real problem for Fox. Does it stay with the establishment in the hope of recovering big money advertisers but risk hemorrhaging more viewers Indispensable for advertising revenue?

Does Fox divorce itself from Mitch McConnell and the rest, go to war against George Soros - a member of the Murdoch kiddies' social class, make peace with the base and struggle on with the Second rank advertisers?

Apparently, Fox has chosen a middle ground: superficial reform.

In a way the need to reform Fox News (or if you prefer, abandon it altogether) parallels the need to reform or abandon the Republican Party itself. Which way to go is not as simple as it appears on first inspection.

Both vehicles, the Republican Party and Fox News, represent powerful organs of communication and organization which are hugely expensive and and normatively time-consuming to reproduce. Therefore, if real reform of both of these institutions is possible, it is simply prudent to retain them and clean them rather than to abandon them.

A charismatic leader, such as Roger Ailes was for Fox News and Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump were for the Republican Party, could conceivably lead movements big enough to replace these institutions. Perhaps Trump could do it.

In my view, reform is better than replacement because of practical considerations. But I am not deceived, reform is probably illusory and there is probably no historic path open to us but a revolutionary upheaval deposing of both the Republican Party and Fox News.

That road will be attenuated at best and it will come at a time when we need these institutions not just for political survival but for the very survival of our liberties as well as our survival of the threat from China. We are in a battle for mind control, the Democrats want to control them we want to liberated minds. The Democrats are well on the way to taking away both of These two vital institutions and Thereby dominating every vital American avenue of mind control.

That is why the choice of abandonment or reform must be carefully considered.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””The people you see on air are actors. Just like Hollywood actors. And just like Hollywood actors they have personal opinions which may or may not align with the character they are playing.”””

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Good point. And ABC, CBS, NBC are not news organizations, they are movie and entertainment companies. As was FOX before it split from 20th Century Fox.

[MtnClimber]

Very well said. I agree that reform would be best, but the GOPe and the left don’t seem to smell their own body odor so I have little hope that they can change what they can’t smell.

[capydick]

Two useful idiots who willingly or unwillingly thought they were in good stead serving their masters by spouting the new commie propaganda but didn’t count on the economics of their message impacting their employment. The rest are probably nervous thinking “well I did everything I was supposed to do, why me?”

Wallass not so much so, he’s comfortable knowing he’s got his 7M salary and probably just as big buyout should he get whacked so he’s more sure of his future either way and can say aggravating crap like “this speech was the best inauguration speech I ever heard.” Pure 100% propaganda that nobody believes.

Useful idiots....

[Ann Archy]

Good start...now Chris WALLASS, Juan, Brazile, Marshall, WHOREALDO, PERINO, just for now.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””But the problem at Fox News is not just economics, the problem also involves the network’s attachment to the establishment core of the Republican Party. The Republican base has filed for divorce from the establishment thus posing a real problem for Fox. Does it stay with the establishment in the hope of recovering big money advertisers but risk hemorrhaging more viewers Indispensable for advertising revenue?”””

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I expect FOX will stay with the establishment core of the Republican Party. FOX is already losing/lost the conservative Republicans to OAN, NEWSMAX, and other conservative news sites on the internet.

[unread]

"90% of Fox needs to go, and be replaced with true Americans."

I think we could say the same thing about our government now days..

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””Two useful idiots who willingly or unwillingly thought they were in good stead”””

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Sammons is 61 years old so probably not much of a financial hit for him to take retirement.

Stirewalt is 45 years old so he will find his new gig with ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.

[joesbucks]

Yep. The news organizations that capitulate to Dominion. Take down their stories on Dominion vote rigging.

[joesbucks]

So who’s muzzled?

[capydick]

Agreed on both points....