FOX News could be headed for a 'disaster' situation over division between anchors and commentators
Is FOX News headed for a "disaster" situation in the near future?
According to an illuminating new Vanity Fair article, that could very well be the case. Sarah Ellison reported that there is a brewing "nightmare" at the right-leaning cable news network, where there is a massive divide between its news anchors and more controversial commentators.
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To be clear, FOX differentiates its on-screen personalities between "its news side and its commentary side." Commentators like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are prone to more contentious language and overtly opinionated commentary on the news, while anchors like Chris Wallace, Shepard Smith and Bret Baier are, as Ellison described, "more earnest" in their presentation.
The division between the two sides became clear this week when Judge Andrew Napolitano claimed that "FOX News is reporting that" President Obama wiretapped President Trump's phones. His claims resulted in Napolitano being suspended from the cable news channel. As the Vanity Fair piece pointed out, both Smith and Baier took stances against the comments -- which could signify something bigger.
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"You have to read into the way Shep said what he said. And why Bret dealt with it the way he did," a source told Ellison. "He is not a reporter and knows he's not a reporter. [...] It's a disaster. It's a nightmare."
The internal division over the Napolitano controversy, as well as President Trump's comments in general, could worry the Murdochs, who run FOX News, if backlash continues to build and threaten "their proposed deal to purchase outright Sky News."
Not only that, but the network is still dealing with continued reports of sexual harassment within the company, which all came to a head last year with the ousting of Roger Ailes. Multiple other settlements indicate that those were not isolated incidents.
Regardless of the controversy, FOX News has been a ratings juggernaut over the last couple of months. It's currently on an 11-week streak as the No. 1 network on basic cable.
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