"Why do you think Rupert [Murdock] attacks me so often?"
"Rupert always tells me to my face that he loves me, but I guess he doesn't."
U.S.President Donald Trump
"[While
the president has for many years considered launching 'Trump TV', he
often underestimates costs and infrastructure involved, along with
opposition of] liberal [cable operators."
"The president has been a fantastic media personality ... but if he does [Trump TV] he's gonna have a super hard time."
"[Could Trump partner with Newsmax? I] never closed the door [on the option]."
Christopher Ruddy, founder, conservative media group Newsmax
It
was a useful collaboration benefiting both parties while it lasted. Fox
News got the inside source for its support of a president who loathed
mainstream press and media sources because they were all irremediably
biased against him, unable to recognize the fine qualities he brought to
the Oval Office, while Fox News was amenable to join its less staid,
conservative bent to the unorthodox comportment of a president whose
coarse demeanor and questionable values and behaviour failed to strike
the right chord with the mainstream.
"The
president's going to — he's very transparent in terms of what he wants.
And he's been very clear about his views … I'm not trying to make
anybody happy."
"What
I'm trying to do is, fulfill what he wants — I mean, he's the duly
elected commander in chief — and make the best out of it."
"My
frustration is I sit here and say, 'Hmm, 18 Cabinet members. Who's
pushed back more than anybody?' Name another Cabinet secretary that's
pushed back."
"Have you seen me on a stage saying, 'Under the exceptional leadership of blah-blah-blah, we have blah-blah-blah-blah'?"
"I serve my country in deference to the Constitution, so I accept your decision to replace me."
(former) Defence Secretary Mark Esper
President
Donald Trump is in a mean, rip-raging mood. And there will be
consequences. Some have already surfaced. The President of the United
States of America, dignified as always, respectful of those who have
served the American people well and who have managed to stifle their
sense of equanimity in the face of unorthodox interference in their
service to their country, took to Twitter today to 'terminate' an
important member of his Cabinet; a not-unusual state of affairs with
this president.
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Defence Secretary Mark Esper sacked by Trump, Reuters
|
He had the unmitigated gall, after all, of refusing a presidential
order to intervene militarily in the protests that took place across
from the White House months earlier in contravention of his duty to a
president who feels that national law applies only to others. When
Defence Secretary Mark Esper demurred over using the military for an
action that local police should be called upon to monitor, the stage was
set for a future come-uppance. Which arrived when a brooding, offended
president unwilling to accept that enough Americans voted against a
second four-year term for a flawed, petulant, egotistical ignoramus to
make way for a semblance of normalcy in the White House decided that in
the time left to him before he proved without a doubt that his
Democratic rival would not sit in the Oval Office come January to clean
house.
And among others who will soon fall to the Twitter guillotine-in-waiting, there is Fox News
which chose to declare on Tuesday election night that the state of
Arizona had voted in the majority for Joe Biden, thus giving the
Democrat the first 'flip' victory in a state Donald Trump felt certain
would continue to support him. The first response was from that
considerable portion of the public that supports Mr.Trump, shouting "Fox News sucks!" And then the Associated Press followed and the Trump prospects began to waver leading the president to glower over 'betrayal'.
Fox News
became the premier media organization to watch because it was Donald
Trump's media voice aided and abetted by loyal presenters including Sean
Hannity and Tucker Carlson who have doubled as counsellors and
advocates for the Trump presidency. The president had the inside track
with the channel and Fox News had
coveted access directly to the White House. Its new style of coverage
has wildly displeased Trump, however; little perceived slights here and
there, ticking him off, engendering Twitter reprisals.
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Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Sean
Hannity (L) interviews U.S President Donald Trump before a campaign
rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on September 20, 2018. Ethan Miller/Getty Images |
Fox and
Rupert Murdoch were resistant to an intervention by Jared Kushner on
behalf of his father-in-law to defer to the inescapable reality that the
election was being 'stolen' from the estimable Donald Trump. Within the
Fox network itself
there is dissension with Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham
brought to testify on air by Hannity to support the unsubstantiated
claims of voter fraud as a deliberate attempt to diminish support for
the president's second term of office.
Similarly the most popular personality on Fox, Carlson openly defied his network's Arizona call informing viewers he couldn't be certain "how the decision was made", but was sure that "people are concerned". Print titles clarified nothing other than that there appeared to be a fissure between Fox and Trump which the New York Post headline reading "Downcast Trump makes baseless election fraud claims" further infuriated the good man. Horror of horrors! Trump's most favourite print source for news.
The collaboration over the course of four years between the president and the conservative news media that Fox represents allowed it to attain unforeseen heights of influence and commercial success. Since Trump won office in 2016 Fox News
became the most-watched cable channel sweeping American television in
prime time -- and for the 2020 election unfolding last Tuesday a
memorable 13.7 million watched Fox News in contrast to CNN's 9 million and MSN-BC's 7 million, according to Nielsen.
How events turn in upon themselves ... Fox is now nervous about an idle thought Trump once expressed about starting his own channel. Fox
profited by over $12 billion in revenues in the last fiscal year
reflecting operating profits at its cable news division which climbed 8
percent to $2.7 billion even while facing a structural decline in cable
television in the face of hyper-charged news cycle transitions. With the
loss of entree to Trump-insider-news the prospect that an ex-president
may begin a media network of his own on leaving the White House must
send shivers down the spine of Fox.
The merest suggestion of that coming to fruition saw Fox shares fall over four percent, underperforming its peers and the broader market. Fox Corp's investors are now concerned with the prospect of Trump TV but in the opinion of media analyst Michael Nathanson, investors are "overestimating the impact of a potential new entrant", even though Trump is considered the biggest crowd-puller in cable news history.
|
Dozens of protesters converged at Fox News
headquarters, as the corporation held an “emergency” meeting to court
nervous brands to continue advertising on the network, on March 13,
2019. Photo: Michael Nigro/Sipa USA/AP |
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