Well, This Is What I Think

Her Facebook outburst complaining about Fox canceling her appearance at the Republic National Convention revealed something deep about Palin’s often rocky relationship with the network.

Palin’s contract is now up, and according to sources, Fox News executives have been weighing what kind of deal they would sign, if they signed one at all. Well now, accompanied by some weasel-words of thanks, Fox have pulled the plug.

Palin earned roughly $1 million per year from Fox, making her the highest paid contributor at the network. Fox executives were disappointed with her ratings; Palin was disappointed by Fox’s decision to not give her top billing on bookings.

According to sources, the relationship at times got so bad that much communication was conducted via Palin’s husband Todd. One thing became clear: It was risky for her to push the envelope too far. Fox had been a central pillar of Palin’s national reach since quitting the governorship, and without the network’s platform, it’s unclear how she could maintain even her current, much-diminished level of visibility. Well, now it’s over.

Palin’s Facebook outburst surely didn’t endear her to the President of Fox News Roger Ailes, who prizes message discipline and loyalty among his troops. Ailes has been at times frustrated with Palin’s erratic public moves since her decision to ignore his advice to remain quiet in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in 2011. At the time, her ill-thought out comments signalled to many that her political career was over and that she revealed clearly why she was unfit for office.

Palin crossed him again when she gave her decision not to run to talk radio host Mark Levin, not Fox.

Palin’s very unlikely replacement, Dennis Kucinich

After healing her relationship following the RNC outburst, Fox spokesperson Brian Lewis said: “We look forward to having a long and beneficial relationship with the Governor.”  Yeah, right.

What is much more interesting than the on-going demise of the dreadful Ms Palin is that Fox have just signed Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential candidate far to the left of Palin, as an analyst. Kucinich will receive criticism for signing on with the rabidly biased network, but if he gets any valuable airtime at all, as opposed to merely being used as a dancing dog to poke fun at, then his move might be worthwhile.

He would do well to remember my old Mum’s sage advice, though. A fount of knowledge as encapsulated in proverbs, she would have quietly intoned:

“If you would sup with the Devil, use a long spoon.”*

Quite.

(Some information sourced from the Washington Post)

*HE SHOULD HAVE A LONG SPOON THAT SUPS WITH THE DEVIL – “If you keep bad company you will need to be on your guard.  If you agree to partake of the devil’s hospitality, you are on dangerous ground and need to beware. The reference to a long spoon is obscure; probably it emphasizes the distance it is necessary to keep from the potent contamination of the devil. The proverb was current in the fourteenth century. Chaucer using it in his Canterbury Tales: ‘Therfor bihoveth him a ful long spoon/ That shal ete with a feend,’ thus herde I seye.’ (The Squire’s Tale, c1386). And Shakespeare referred to it in The Tempest where Stephano says of Caliban: ‘This is a devil, and no monster; I will leave him; I have no long spoon.'” From the “Dictionary of Proverbs and their Origins” by Linda and Roger Flavell (Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1993).