Starting tonight, Fox News will add yet another hour of pro-Trump opinion programming to its prime-time lineup. But Ingraham stands out in two ways from her prime time companions: One, she’ll probably be more of a soldier in the Bannon war on the establishment GOP and two, she is personally despised by those who work with her.
At least in terms of Fox News prime time, the Bannon war on the GOP establishment has already been won. In a very smart analysis of the new schedule, Media Matters’ Matt Gertz notes that FNC prime time is, for all intents and purposes, now Breitbart TV.
Fox’s evening block will feature three consecutive hours of the same cocktail—of anti-immigrant and anti-diversity invective, pro-Trump fanaticism, and vindictive opposition to the Republican establishment, the press, and cultural elites—that made Breitbart a force on the right.
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Ingraham, the newest member of the lineup, shares many of the Breitbartian attributes of her colleagues, combining Hannity’s loyalty to the president and disdain for establishment Republicans and Carlson’s fixation on the perils of immigration and diversity. What she adds is Breitbart’s interest in trying to directly shape the Republican Party by pushing out officeholders considered insufficiently loyal to the president and his agenda. Indeed, Ingraham teamed up with Bannon to back a primary challenger to Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) earlier this month. Her show will likely end up featuring a parade of anti-establishment politicians seeking her support.
Tonight’s debut stars Trump Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly for what I am sure will be a one-sided view of today’s news about indictments in the Russia investigation.
Behind the scenes, a much less unified dynamic will likely be taking place. In short, Ingraham is a boss from hell:
From an October 22, 2017 article in The Daily Beast:
A number of Fox staffers are dreading the possibility of working for Ingraham, who, even among the healthy egos that populate America’s cable newsrooms, has built a reputation as overbearing. According to numerous sources, Ingraham has been, occasionally, a verbally abusive boss, who will not hesitate to scream at employees if something goes awry. Two former employees of her radio show recounted to The Daily Beast separate instances of Ingraham hurling objects at staff members in displeasure. Though Fox declined to address most specific examples of her conduct, the channel issued a blanket denial of such allegations.
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Ingraham previously hosted a short-lived Fox show called Just In, which ran for three weeks in 2008. That run was long enough for Ingraham to star in a viral video [embedded below] of her berating the show’s production staff off-air. Similar audio has surfaced of Ingraham going off at staff on her radio show. Five former employees of that show, who spoke with The Daily Beast about their experiences, indicated that such conduct was not rare.
“Have you ever seen The Devil Wears Prada?” one former Ingraham radio producer told The Daily Beast, referring to the Meryl Streep film about a New York fashion magazine publisher who was famously brutal on her staff. “That’s what it’s like, except it’s The Devil Does Radio and there are no redeeming qualities with her.”
Fox is doing its best to push back on this perception of Ingraham. The Daily Beast noted: "After The Daily Beast reached out to Fox News’ public relations department, other former Ingraham employees also offered unsolicited and effusive praise for their one-time boss."
Watch Ingraham’s abusive behavior from her 2008 short-lived Just In show on Fox below.
She can be relied on to provide a creative backup to the blindly pro-Trump primetime lineup on Fox News. And, as we’ve discussed previously, it will be very interesting to watch how Fox News is evaluated in the years to come after the Pence White House has come to its predictable result. At the least, Fox News will find the old “Fair and Balanced” slogan not only unusable, but instead a badge of the shame they have richly earned for themselves.
