Gabe Sherman, a very left-wing reporter who often does get accurate scoops, wrote a piece for Vanity Fair claiming former Speaker Paul Ryan has convinced Fox News to move away from President Trump as impeachment looms.
In the piece, he also described management chaos at Fox and a concerned Sean Hannity who is allegedly telling friends the Ukraine situation looks “really bad.” The latter information was obtained third-hand and Hannity would not comment for the article.
There is the usual slant with the assumption that President Trump is facing inevitable impeachment, and he may be, and presidency armageddon. His main sources are anonymous executives at Fox.
Four anonymous sources told Sherman they are bracing for a post-Trump future.
Describing the ‘chaos’ at Fox, he brought up the brouhaha between Shep Smith and Tucker Carlson to back up their contention that the factual news side and the opinion side are battling it out. The only problem with describing Shep’s show as a factual news side is he’s a biased opinion activist.
PAUL RYAN STEPS IN & WILL PROBABLY DESTROY FOX
The most interesting claim, at least for me, is the part about Paul Ryan, who sits on their board. Sherman, who broke several scandals at Fox, including the Ailes disaster, writes:
The ultimate referee of this fight will be Lachlan Murdoch. In recent months, Rupert’s oldest son has been holding strategy conversations with Fox executives and anchors about how Fox News should prepare for life after Trump.
Among the powerful voices advising Lachlan that Fox should decisively break with the president is former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who joined the Fox board in March. “Paul is embarrassed about Trump and now he has the power to do something about it,” an executive who’s spoken with Ryan told me. (Ryan did not return a call seeking comment.)
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But a person more sympathetic to Trump has told Lachlan that Fox should remain loyal to Trump’s supporters, even if the network has to break from the man. “We need to represent our viewers,” the source said. “Fox is about defending our viewers from the people who hate them. That’s where our power comes from. It’s not about Trump.”
If true that the former do-nothing speaker said he has more power now than as speaker, that’s a sad commentary on how he viewed his position and it’s a frightening tell on media.
Perhaps, if he had Republican principles and a little more competence that would not have been the case — that’s just a guess.
He slept through his role as Speaker, one which he never wanted and he was ill-suited for in the opinion of many Republicans. Ryan didn’t even do things that did not concern Trump and should have been a focus — like fundraising. Kevin McCarthy had to pick up the slack.
Ryan has some progressive values and his wife is progressive. While serving in the House for 20 years, he achieved nothing. There are no bills with his name on them except for the post office namings. If this is true about Fox listening to his bad advice, and it could well be, what chance does Fox have with a failed Speaker calling the shots? Moving away from their huge base of Republicans is a really bad idea.
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