Fox News Yawns Over Jeb Bush’s Presidential Announcement

A few hours after Jeb Bush announced he’s running for president, Fox News’ prime time shows all led with discussions about Hillary Clinton.

Recently, New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported that Fox chief Roger Ailes is not so thrilled with Bush:

Ailes simply isn’t dazzled by any of the GOP contenders so far. In fact, he has gotten into it with some of the biggest names in the field. He recently clashed with Jeb Bush over immigration and his support for Common Core. According to one source, Ailes fumed at Bush that his education policy would wipe American history and religion from his teenage son’s textbooks.

If last night's reaction to Bush’s announcement is any guide, then Sherman’s reporting has been validated.

Each of Fox News’ prime time shows made Hillary Clinton’s campaign their top story. On The Record, which airs just before prime time, at 7PM ET, led with a report on shark attacks.

In fact, Fox did not include anything about Jeb Bush when it selected its online videos for The O’Reilly Factor and The Kelly File.

This is not to say that Fox wouldn’t rally around Bush faster than you can say “fair and balanced” if he becomes the nominee. Bush is scheduled to spend the full hour with Sean Hannity Tuesday night. And Bush has already gotten some Fox News love.

But Scott Walker may well get a little more love.

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Showing 6 reactions

commented 2015-06-16 20:33:13 -0400 · Flag

Cross-eyed Scottie is the front runner among the real GOPiggy decisions-makers like Jabba the Ailes and the Kock Brothers.

Scottie will facially balance the ticket with an Hispanic like Big Gulp Rubio.

commented 2015-06-16 14:03:50 -0400 · Flag

@scooter — I beg to differ; Fox Noise may be the undisputed mouthpiece of the GOP, but its the money (i.e., the Koch Brothers) that makes the choice.

Past experience has shown that the Koch Brothers will only spend the large amounts that they do on candidates that resemble them — male, white, wealthy, 60-plus . . . Jeb fits that to a “T” (as did both the ’08 and ’12 GOP candidates.)

This makes the other declared clowns in the GOP clown car nothing more than initial sideshow distractions: Fiorina’s the wrong gender, Carson and Rubio the wrong ethnicity, Cruz has the wrong birthplace, Paul and Santorum are too far right for the general election, while Graham isn’t far right enough.

Fox may have greeted Jeb’s announcement with a ho-hum now, but that can always change later: recall how Crazy Annie Coulter in February 2008 said she’d vote for Hillary Clinton over McCain in the general election, and how Fox once put a “D” behind McCain’s name in the chyron . . . by that SAME October, Coulter was defending McCain over his grant to Rashid Khalidi, and even Kneel Craputo gushingly compared McCain, at his age, to Harrison Ford’s performance in “Indiana Jones And the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.”

Check back around this time next year: with both party conventions either already ended or in full swing, and the debates yet to occur, the roaring silence on Fox that greeted Jeb Bush’s announcement will be replaced by an endless crescendo of positive press, free airings of campaign ads, and daily denouncements of his opponent (HRC) . . .

.

commented 2015-06-16 11:53:12 -0400 · Flag

And there is the official kiss of death to the Bush campaign. If FOX won’t support you, you’re toast.

commented 2015-06-16 10:01:14 -0400 · Flag

I couldn’t help but notice that his campaign banner and stickers only mention his first name. Geeee, I wonder why?

commented 2015-06-16 09:47:20 -0400 · Flag

Hillarity is getting lots of airtime on Fox.

NewsHounds posted about Fox News Yawns Over Jeb Bush’s Presidential Announcement on NewsHounds' Facebook page 2015-06-16 09:00:12 -0400

This was a surprise.