Rene, it's now some three weeks after your blog about the “young Murdoch guns” at Fox News and their decision to oust Tucker Carlson. Now, we are beginning to engage Paul Harvey’s famous adage: “… and now you know the rest of the story.”
Your original assessment in the April 24, 2023 blog post was insightful and good, and while your main points remain immutable there is so much more to the story that is just now unfolding. And it’s rich… oh so rich! It harkens the old planning axiom: there are the intended consequences (of taking a certain action), yet there are ALWAYS the unintended consequences, too. And, my-oh-my!... the sparks and fireworks of the unintended consequences are just beginning.
To wit: it’s now the 2nd week of May 2023, and Tucker just announced that he is shifting his entire news platform to Twitter. Yes!... Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk are teaming up! Hip-Hip-Hooray!
What a magnificently unexpected foil to that unctuously arrogant and aristocratic crowd for which the young Murdoch heirs associate and suck-up. From my spot in the cheap seats, I suspect that the Tucker/Elon dynamic duo will probably leave a few stains in this crowd's BVDs. In fact, it might be even more than a few stains… I suspect it’s more like a full 5 lb potato sack of “unintended consequences” in their britches! And I am perfectly fine with such a deliciously wicked outcome. 😉
Oh, and this little tidbit: Tucker Carlson’s predecessor at Fox News, Megyn Kelly – a person who knows a lot about the inner workings at Fox News Corp (and who has the same legal representation for media contracts as Tucker) – reports that Fox News has, indeed, NOT fired Tucker and is still paying him his full salary…to do nothing. To stay on the sidelines. To be unvoiced. To be unheard. Interestingly, Tucker’s contract with Fox News runs through January 2025… ahem, just after the 2024 elections are completed. As Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” character would skewer: “How conveeeeeenient!”
Megyn’s #1 Enemy and Antagonist at Fox News is not so much the Murdoch heirs but a Fox executive by the name of Irena Briganti, Sr Exec VP of Corporate Communications. Megyn has some very dicey, if not unpleasant things to say about her time at Fox News and how Irena was thorn in just about everyone’s side. She is quite certain that Irena is in full play here AND on full display. And apparently, the laissez-faire management style of the aristocratic Murdoch heirs leaves Briganti wide open to do her skullduggery at-will behind the scenes at Fox.
If Tucker is still receiving full salary from Fox and he’s now working with Elon Musk, Megyn feels certain that (another) Fox lawsuit is afoot, this time against Tucker Carlson for breach of contract. Yet, I get the very strong feeling that Megyn thinks it will be a lose-lose situation for the cable news network. To modify your opening analogy, Rene, it would be like taking your dog sled team and instead of shooting your lead dog you instruct him to go run around in the woods for the next two years yet telling him, “Don’t go run off too much, now!” How on earth would you make sense of such decision making in a court of law? (And Megyn would know as she is an attorney by education… just as you are, too!)
Yup, this whole saga is gonna be rich. Get the popcorn, folks. The show is about to start! 😊
Rene, it's now some three weeks after your blog about the “young Murdoch guns” at Fox News and their decision to oust Tucker Carlson. Now, we are beginning to engage Paul Harvey’s famous adage: “… and now you know the rest of the story.”
Your original assessment in the April 24, 2023 blog post was insightful and good, and while your main points remain immutable there is so much more to the story that is just now unfolding. And it’s rich… oh so rich! It harkens the old planning axiom: there are the intended consequences (of taking a certain action), yet there are ALWAYS the unintended consequences, too. And, my-oh-my!... the sparks and fireworks of the unintended consequences are just beginning.
To wit: it’s now the 2nd week of May 2023, and Tucker just announced that he is shifting his entire news platform to Twitter. Yes!... Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk are teaming up! Hip-Hip-Hooray!
What a magnificently unexpected foil to that unctuously arrogant and aristocratic crowd for which the young Murdoch heirs associate and suck-up. From my spot in the cheap seats, I suspect that the Tucker/Elon dynamic duo will probably leave a few stains in this crowd's BVDs. In fact, it might be even more than a few stains… I suspect it’s more like a full 5 lb potato sack of “unintended consequences” in their britches! And I am perfectly fine with such a deliciously wicked outcome. 😉
Oh, and this little tidbit: Tucker Carlson’s predecessor at Fox News, Megyn Kelly – a person who knows a lot about the inner workings at Fox News Corp (and who has the same legal representation for media contracts as Tucker) – reports that Fox News has, indeed, NOT fired Tucker and is still paying him his full salary…to do nothing. To stay on the sidelines. To be unvoiced. To be unheard. Interestingly, Tucker’s contract with Fox News runs through January 2025… ahem, just after the 2024 elections are completed. As Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” character would skewer: “How conveeeeeenient!”
Megyn’s #1 Enemy and Antagonist at Fox News is not so much the Murdoch heirs but a Fox executive by the name of Irena Briganti, Sr Exec VP of Corporate Communications. Megyn has some very dicey, if not unpleasant things to say about her time at Fox News and how Irena was thorn in just about everyone’s side. She is quite certain that Irena is in full play here AND on full display. And apparently, the laissez-faire management style of the aristocratic Murdoch heirs leaves Briganti wide open to do her skullduggery at-will behind the scenes at Fox.
If Tucker is still receiving full salary from Fox and he’s now working with Elon Musk, Megyn feels certain that (another) Fox lawsuit is afoot, this time against Tucker Carlson for breach of contract. Yet, I get the very strong feeling that Megyn thinks it will be a lose-lose situation for the cable news network. To modify your opening analogy, Rene, it would be like taking your dog sled team and instead of shooting your lead dog you instruct him to go run around in the woods for the next two years yet telling him, “Don’t go run off too much, now!” How on earth would you make sense of such decision making in a court of law? (And Megyn would know as she is an attorney by education… just as you are, too!)
Yup, this whole saga is gonna be rich. Get the popcorn, folks. The show is about to start! 😊
Thank you for your intellectual journalism and refreshing point of view.