Nobody said so outright but three former Fox Newsers made it clear that Shepard Smith’s resignation is an ominous power gain for Trump toadies Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
In a discussion on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, host Brian Stelter opened the discussion by calling Smith’s exit a “cultural moment” that’s “bigger than Fox.”
STELTER: I think this is bigger than Fox. It’s a sign of what’s happening in America and to America. People sorting themselves into tribes, tuning out inconvenient information. And right now, this phenomenon is most intense on the right which is why Shep Smith's exit is a cultural moment and why it's shaking up the journalists who are left at Fox. One Fox reporter saying she feels like she's been hit by a bus. Another saying the news is heartbreaking and saying, quote, I fear things are going to get much, much worse.
For more, Stelter brought on Fox’s former chief political correspondent Carl Cameron, former foreign correspondent Conor Powell and former contributor Julie Roginsky. Both Cameron and Powell left as the result of Fox’s embrace of Trumpism. Democrat Roginsky left after settling a sexual harassment claim.
Roginsky said the people she has spoken to at Fox are “depressed,“ “anxious” and “obviously shocked” by Smith's departure because “the person they believed was their leader and trying to really have a journalistic ethos at Fox is now gone.” She added, “They're worried about who else may be going as a result of Shep's departure.”
Even some of the “opinion people” feel that Smith’s resignation is “a massive, massive loss for the network,” according to Roginsky. "Nobody that I spoke to was high-fiving,” she said.
Roginsky also validated Vanity Fair's recent “management bedlam” description of Fox. “A lot of them feel like the management is not really managing,” Roginsky added. She said the on-air feuding between Shepard Smith and Tucker Carlson would never have happened under the tenure of Roger Ailes (ousted in disgrace). Now, “A lot of them feel like … their backs are not going to be protected by the second floor or the people in charge of the network.” She summed up the ominous situation.
ROGINSKY: And I think today in the absence of that, what you have are people like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity essentially running their own fiefdoms and not really allowing others to have any kind of airtime.
And so, I have spoken to a lot of people who are not Democrats or liberals by any stretch of the imagination unless you think that liberalism -- unless you think the truth has a liberal bias. These are just people who are fact-checking the president in real time. They're seeing the airtime cut off. They're not seeing as much access to the air as they used to have.
Nobody contradicted Roginsky. Powell said, “I think Julie's pretty much nailed it.” Later, he said, “It's easy to get airtime on Fox if you just toe the sort of conservative line in terms of the reporting there.”
Powell called Smith a “directional compass” for the Fox journalists. “At least day in and day out, Shepard's voice was on the channel.” Without Smith, Powell said, “I'm not sure what you're left with. I think you're probably just left with Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson's voice. I'm not sure that's particularly a good thing for the United States."
Cameron seemed to agree. He said the news division at Fox News has shrunk and that the journalists are “vastly outnumbered by the opinion makers.” Those opinion makers “are more interested in playing to people's bias than anything else. And it makes it very difficult for journalists to actually give people honest facts when the airtime is shrinking constantly."
Watch it below, from CNN’s October 13, 2019 Reliable Sources.
Cavuto’s big anti-Trump moment came in response to Trump criticizing Fox News. A big no-no begging a response.
Wallace’s show appears on Fox entertainment, a broader more mainstream audience.
The problem isn’t just the prime time pundit shows protect the MAGA crowd from inconvenient truths. The Shep-less news division does a good job at that starting with Trump’s favorite show Fox & Friends. The problem is the pundit shows stir the pot with hate filled anti-lib rants, wild conspiracy theories and white nationalism. This crap is as incendiary as it is dangerously dishonest.