If you’ve noticed Fox News becoming more of a shill for establishment candidates and liberal causes lately, well, you’re not alone. After a major shakeup at the network, several major conservative pundits — including Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin — have started to push back against the network’s leftward drift.
In an article published earlier this week by New York Magazine, Fox News insiders said that the conservative network’s architect, Roger Ailes, was being slowly pushed out of the picture.
“(Ailes) seems detached and removed,” an unnamed Fox News personality was quoted as saying.
“He’s not around as much,” a friend of Ailes added. “He doesn’t have as many meetings with talent.”
As Rupert Murdoch’s sons — Lachlan and James Murdoch — have taken over their father’s media empire, Ailes’ role has been relegated to a secondary one.
In addition, the once-conservative network has embraced establishment candidates like former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. John Kasich. Meanwhile, the network has either marginalized or been hostile to candidates like businessman Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz.
“I can tell you, my base is fed up with Fox,” former Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin said. In her recent book “Sold Out,” Malkin went as far as to call Murdoch a “treacherous bedfellow.”
However, she pointed out that even though Fox was becoming less conservative, there still weren’t many other options for conservatives looking to escape mainstream media’s liberal bias.
“After the big brouhaha with Trump, there was all the apocalyptic talk of the ratings cratering. But there’s still nowhere else on TV to go,” Malkin said. “There’s a big opportunity. These people are sick and tired of seeing (South Carolina Sen.) Lindsey Graham all over Fox.”
Rush Limbaugh agreed. As the man who set the blueprint for much of Fox’s punditry, Limbaugh is in a unique position to judge the network. He’s also in a unique position to judge Roger Ailes, too — Ailes was his producer during Rush’s foray into television in the early ’90s and remains a close friend.
However, Limbaugh recently said he “no longer watches cable news,” a quote a Limbaugh friend told reporters was directed specifically at Fox News.
People within conservative political circles have noticed the drift as well, the article alleged.
“I’ve joked to people that they’ll be doing a segment about kumquats in China and somehow they’ll mention Rubio,” an unnamed associate of Ted Cruz’s is quoted as saying.
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