By Jerry A. Kane ——Bio and Archives--August 11, 2015
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"For Ailes, it was a stinging smack-down and effectively a demotion."To say that Ailes and Murdoch's son James have a strained relationship would be a bit of an understatement. James, whose wife once worked for the Clinton Foundation, is a rabid environmentalist who led the campaign to make News Corp a carbon-neutral company. Conversely, Ailes is a "fierce climate-change denier," who allegedly has called James a "f@#$%!g dope" and "Fredo." Ailes was not notified of the management change in advance. Apparently, Murdoch has been convinced that Fox News will continue do well without Ailes at the helm. Last year Ailes took a leave of absence due to an illness, and the network's ratings didn't slide. Now that control of Fox News has been given to Murdoch's sons Ailes' fair and balanced reporting and conservative punditry will soon fall by the wayside. "I think the boys are back ... yoked together in a sort of competitive collaboration," said David Folkenflik, author of Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires. Last month at the behest of Ailes, Fox News gave Trump more airtime than any other candidate, and analysts and hosts made pro-Trump arguments and gushed over him. But then the network jumped the shark at the Republican Party's first presidential primary debate in Cleveland, Ohio, last Thursday.
The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long." --William Shakespeare, King Lear
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Jerry A. Kane is a retired English professor who has also worked as a journalist and technical writer. His writings have been featured at Canada Free Press and some have appeared at WorldNetDaily, American Thinker, and in daily and weekly newspapers across the country. His commentaries, news stories, and musings appear regularly on his blog, The Millstone Diaries.