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Fox News Isn’t Renewing Sarah Palin’s Contract
By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jan 25, 2013 at 5:42 pm
At the New York Times, cable news chronicler Brian Stelter has the story that Sarah Palin’s original contract with Fox News will not be renewed:
Yes, Ms. Palin’s contract with Fox News has ended, and no, it is not being renewed. A Fox spokeswoman confirmed Friday that Fox had parted ways with the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, effectively reducing her exposure to the channel’s millions of loyal viewers.
It was unclear whether the parting was Ms. Palin’s choice. Bill Shine, an executive vice president at Fox, said in a statement, “We have thoroughly enjoyed our association with Governor Palin. We wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
As of last week, Ms. Palin remained in negotiations with Fox News about a new contract. Her original contract with the network started in January 2010 and ended this month.
This makes a lot of sense. As I’ve written before, Fox News’ schtick has always been to hire intensely polarizing figures, from Dr. Keith Ablow, who spends most of his time making outrageous statements about gay and transgender people, to former Los Angeles detective Mark Fuhrman who, tragically and hilariously, comments on criminal justice issues, despite having plead no contest to charges he perjured himself in the O.J. Simpson case. Palin would seem to be in that tradition: since she stepped on the national stage at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Palin’s primary talent has been for incendiary rhetoric.
But Palin’s not rooted in any particular extreme viewpoint. Her policy perspectives have always been too squishy for her to represent much in the way of an particular constituency or any cause other than herself and her own fans. She was never particularly a ratings hit on Fox—a special planned around her turned out not to be the sort of draw the network hoped for. And unlike Ablow and his ilk, Palin was never even particularly successful at tweaking liberals in her appearance on the network, ginning up the kind of publicity that could have made her a worthwhile investment even if she wasn’t particularly popular with the network’s core audience.
The Palin family as a whole seems to hope for careers in show business, but this is only the latest in a string of failures for them. The TLC show Sarah Palin’s Alaska saw declining ratings and wasn’t renewed for a second season. Bristol Palin’s Lifetime show was yanked from the network for lower viewership, but not before landing $354,348 in tax subsidies from the state of Alaska. Todd Palin was reduced to appearing as one of many celebrities on NBC’s military reality show Stars Earned Stripes.
Maybe now that Fox News has cut ties with Palin, the rest of the television industry will follow suit. Sarah Palin long ago proved she had no real aptitude for governance when she quit her job as governor as Alaska. Her time on Fox proved she didn’t have much spark as a source of news or opinion. And the rest of her family’s efforts suggest that as entertainment, the Palins have nothing to offer us but diminishing returns.
posted
She is still a hottie. Great legs. She might get a little annoying after a few glasses of wine, perhaps very aloof. Either way it would be worth it.
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An Indiana prosecutor and Republican activist has resigned after emails show he suggested Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stage a fake attack on himself to discredit unions protesting his budget repair bill.
The Republican governor signed a bill on March 11 that eliminates most union rights for public employees.
In an email from February 19, Indiana deputy prosecutor Carlos F. Lam told Walker the situation presented “a good opportunity for what’s called a ‘false flag’ operation.”
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism discovered the email among tens of thousands released to the public last week following a lawsuit by the Isthmus and the Associated Press.
“If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions,” Lam said in his email.
“Currently, the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest,” he continued. “Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions.”
Lam resigned from his position after the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism published an article about his email.
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Report: Sarah Palin paid $15.85 per word by Fox News
Jan 28, 2013 | 1Comments
Written by
USA TODAY
Filed Under News Nation/World
Just how much was Sarah Palin paid to offer commentary on Fox News?
A Smart Politics study finds the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee earned about $15.85 per word.
The University of Minnesota's political blog reviewed Palin's 189 Fox News appearances from 2010 to 2012 and determined she spoke 189,221 words in those TV gigs. Using published reports that the former Alaska governor was paid about $1 million a year by Fox News, Smart Politics determined the per word earnings.
It was revealed on Friday that Fox News and Palin parted ways. She told Stephen Bannon, the filmmaker behind the 2011 movie about Palin, that she intends to continue speaking out and hopes to play a role in the 2014 midterm elections.
"As far as long-term plans, the door is wide open," Palin told Bannon, in an interview published on Breitbart.com. "I know the country needs more truth-telling in the media, and I'm willing to do that."
A fun aside in the Smart Politics study: Palin only said "you betcha" twice as a Fox News commentator, both in the first month of her contract.
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