Thursday, March 03, 2016

Marco Rubio: He Just Lost the Support of Fox News


The right wing melt down and civil war seems to be intensifying and I candidly find it difficult to summon any sympathy for any of the combatants be they the GOP establishment elite or Trump and his knuckle dragging supporters.  While I shudder at the upheaval that the GOP implosion may wreak on the nation, at the same time I hope that it may make it possible for a reemergence of politics of decency and a goal of providing solutions to pressing needs and issues rather than being consumed by the hate, bigotry and selfishness that are the hallmarks of today's GOP.  Meanwhile, in the GOP civil war, Fox News is seemingly throwing Marco Rubio overboard.  A piece in New York Magazine looks at this new right wing backstabbing.  Here are are excerpts:
In his role as the donor class's darling, Marco Rubio has enjoyed support from the Republicans' media arm, Fox News.   . . . . But this alliance now seems to be over. According to three Fox sources, Fox chief Roger Ailes has told people he's lost confidence in Rubio's ability to win. "We're finished with Rubio," Ailes recently told a Fox host. "We can't do the Rubio thing anymore." 
Ailes was already concerned about Rubio's lackluster performance in GOP primaries and caucuses, winning only one contest among the 15 that have been held. But the more proximate cause for the flip was an embarrassing New York Times article revealing that Rubio and Ailes had a secret dinner meeting in 2013 during which the Florida senator successfully lobbied the Fox News chief to throw his support behind the "Gang of 8" comprehensive immigration-reform bill.
Fox's corporate support of Rubio has also been a growing source of tension with the network's more conservative talent. Sean Hannity was furious that the Times article reported how he went along with Rubio's immigration proposal. During an interview with Trump on Monday, Hannity barely defended Fox while Trump trashed Rubio backers like Hayes. "He shouldn't be on the air," Trump said. The best Hannity could muster was to change the subject. "Have you ever watched MSNBC?" he said. "They suck."
Ailes is now back to searching for a candidate the channel can rally behind. "He's thinking, What do we do about the whole damn thing?" one of the news executive's friends said.

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