Gabriel Sherman, the reporter who got it right when he predicted Roger Ailes would be ousted from Fox News this week, explained in an interview why Fox can probably coast up to the election. But who will write their narratives after that?

In Slate, Sherman had the following exchange with interviewer Isaac Chotiner:

I wrote a piece Thursday saying that if Fox News could keep its talent, it is a pretty well-oiled machine by now and should be able to keep thriving. I sense you disagree.

Yeah, I disagree. But it’s a question of timing. Could they ride this out through November? Sure, because they know the storyline and have the narratives Ailes has teed up for them: Benghazi, Clinton Foundation, Bill Clinton’s past affairs. They know the playbook for the next six months. The real danger is that post November, with a political realignment under either a Clinton presidency or a Trump presidency, there is not going to be a conductor guiding the orchestra about what music to play. Fox exists as a megaphone to broadcast Roger Ailes’ master narrative about American politics.

I think Sherman is spot on here. Fox revised its narrative from "we're the patriots who support our president" during the Bush years to "We're the network that blames our president for everything" during the Obama administration. But even during the Obama years, Fox picked and chose how to attack Obama: birtherism, "secret Muslim" dog whistles, "won't say 'Islamic terrorism'" and "more black than American" are some of the hideous Fox memes that undoubtedly came straight from Ailes.

But how far will the Murdoch sons want to go in neutralizing the poison propaganda that lays the golden egg for parent company 21st Century Fox? It’s too soon to know, Sherman says. And again, I agree.

“By announcing that Rupert is going to be CEO, it buys them time. My sense is that they are not going to just rip the place up before November. But I think they will be watching the political landscape in America as the election unfolds. They have people right now looking at how they are going to reposition this network for a post-2016 landscape.”

But we may be rid of some of Ailes toadies who rallied to the boss’ side after Carlson filed her sexual harassment lawsuit.

“Inside Fox, and also at 21st Century, there is a huge amount of misgivings about the people who came forward to denounce Ailes’ accusers and support Ailes. He rallied especially female employees to issue statements to the press, and there is a feeling that, now that we know the seriousness of the scandal, it is untenable that these Ailes loyalists and dead-enders could really stay. They have been so discredited. There is a strong feeling that the people who spoke out so aggressively against Carlson, that their time could be cut short at Fox.”

Let’s see, that could be Kimberly Guilfoyle, Harris Faulkner and Jeanine Pirro, for starters.

I could so easily live without them. 

Photo of Roger AIles by Sgt. Christopher Tobey via Wikimedia Commons.