Former Fox News contributor Sebastian Gorka is officially leaving his White House job as a national security adviser. This makes three out of three Fox contributors-turned-national-security-“experts” to lose their jobs.
Gorka, you may recall, was recently outed by Forward as a member of a far-right, Nazi-linked Hungarian organization. A former national security editor for Breitbart, Gorka has often played a terrorism expert on Fox. But he isn't a real one.
Forward also reported:
Gorka’s credentials as an academic expert in terrorism have been widely questioned. His doctoral dissertation has been dissected by various academics who say he is not an expert in their field, has never lived in a Muslim-majority country, does not speak Arabic and has avoided publishing any serious, peer-reviewed academic research.
But, hey, he says "radical Islamic terrorism" and those three magic words seem to be the most important terror-fighting tool known to Fox.
According to Fox News, Gorka will take a job outside the White House. His “new role will deal with the ‘war of ideas’ involved in countering radical Islamic extremism and will entail an appointment to a federal agency, a senior administration official said.”
Gorka has come under fire for his ties to the Hungarian organization but it’s unclear to me whether that’s what caused his departure or if it's his fake credentials or because of his connection to former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, Trump’s “chief strategist” who is also reportedly getting pushed out of the White House.
One thing we do know, is that Gorka’s ouster follows the removal of former Fox News national security analyst K.T. McFarland (who also has some skeletons in her closet) from the National Security Council, less than three months after her arrival. Her new gig is ambassador to Singapore.
And McFarland’s departure followed the resignation of former Fox News contributor Monica Crowley. She had planned to become senior director of strategic communications at the National Security Council but suddenly decided to “pursue other opportunities” after getting caught in dozens of instances of plagiarism. Crowley resigned from the Trump administration before inauguration.
However, do not expect this stunning string of failures to put a dent in Trump's love for Fox News. So long as they keep cheerleading him, it's a safe bet the "fair and balanced" network will remain influential.
Former Fox News anchor Heather Nauert is still on the job as the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, as far as I know, but she just got there.
(H/T NewsHound Richard)
(Gorka image via screen grab)
#FRONTLINEonPBS