No matter what happens in the election on November 8, the odds are there will be big changes at Fox News. Perhaps no network has both exemplified and suffered from the divide in the GOP and its base during this election season than the network that has been pro-Republican for decades.
Early in the GOP primary, Fox flirted with Donald Trump for the ratings boost, but their true love was clearly for GOP sigil-bearers like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. The more Libertarian leaning personalities still loved Rand Paul and even Carly Fiorina, but there’s no doubt they all picked a losing horse early on. Then, as Trump began winning and winning and winning, some personalities – like Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly – seemed to pick sides.
Hannity became an unfiltered Trump surrogate, endlessly defending him against, often, his own mouth. Constantly explaining Trump’s gaffes or trying to deflect to Hillary’s baggage. Meanwhile, Kelly had a very public face-off with Trump in one of the early primary debates, back when the GOP was decidedly not on the Trump Train.
Some early Trump supporters pounced on that clash between Kelly and Trump to say the female anchor was showing a disturbing liberal streak. Quietly at first, calls came for Kelly to find a job on another network. Now, a week after Kelly’s on-screen tilt with Newt Gingrich, those voices are shouting that message.
Meanwhile, Kelly is locked into a contract extension dispute with Fox management. The ouster of Roger Ailes at the network didn’t seem to improve gender relations at Fox, but Kelly stayed on, fielding the calls for her to step aside in solidarity with her “sisters.” Megyn just dug in.
But Fox doesn’t seem to want journalists in the anchor chair. They seem to prefer partisans. Chris Wallace notwithstanding, the most popular anchors at Fox News are all full tilt partisans like O’Reilly and Hannity. So it may be time for Megyn to go. The move isn’t unprecedented. Remember when Glenn Beck clashed with Fox’s party line? He got the hook and went on to found The Blaze Network, competing directly with Fox on the radio and the web.
With all of this scuttlebutt as context, Fox owner Rupert Murdoch made a rather unusual announcement, publicly tipping his hand that he definitely wanted to come to terms with both Kelly and O’Reilly, who’s also up for an extension. This could mean Megyn is about to become the new face of Fox, or it could set the stage for Kelly’s departure. At this point, it could go either way … and that’s really the trouble.
Fox has an audience problem. By putting out a steady stream of content that engaged and enraged its base, the network has shored up its profit margin and market share … but it has done so while alienating many Conservatives who want to win more than GOP primaries. They want a strong and honest conservative-leaning network, not a channel that panders to anarchists and conspiracy nuts. But Fox kept feeding the fringe of the base, and now those chickens have come home to roost.
Murdoch has acknowledged Kelly’s importance to the network, just as millions of fans are calling for her to be fired. How do you honor an all-star that half your fans want canned?
Elie Hirschfeld is a seasoned real estate developer in NYC.
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