There’s a lot going on over at FNC, lately. One gets the impression we’ve just barely scratched the analytical surface of this thing. I offer some thoughts in no particular order, simply as they occur to me.
Fox Corp stock on the very day that Tucker Carlson’s leaving the network was announced, lost on the order of $962 million worth of value.
Now, admittedly some of that loss was probably attributable to Dan Bongino being dismissed, as well. After all, those who play the market tend to watch for trends, not individual situations,and those two hosts leaving the network within days of each other constitutes a trend that any market watcher will react to.
One does not get to the point of being as wealthy as Rupert Murdoch without understanding that kind of thing. He must have known there would be a sizable loss but I think it has outstripped anything that he imagined. Does any company, any organization survive losing that kind of money? We seem to be running in uncharted Territory here.
( Aside….I suppose we will see similar losses to automotive companies pushing electric vehicles, and for the same reason… Public reaction.)
I’ve seen several people speculate that Rupert Murdoch is in the process of setting Fox up for a sale. Well, while I consider that possible, certainly, who is going to buy the place in its devalued condition? Frankly, I have my doubts that he’s ever going to find a buyer this way. And so I wonder if that’s really what he intended. I have my doubts.
Don Surber, whose opinion [1] I value greatly, seems to feel that Murdoch took a dive on the Dominion thing because he needed an excuse to silence conservatives, essentially. But needed why? He has no particular loyalties of his own. Who’s pushing that button? And in any event, it won’t achieve the goal if in fact that is the goal. It will merely inflame the situation.
One gets the impression that the bloodletting at Fox is not complete as yet, if in fact silencing conservatives is the purpose behind all of this. Again however, Rupert Murdoch has no political loyalties to speak of, beyond what’s going to aid his pocketbook. So who is pushing this house cleaning?
The idea of outside influence on the decision-making process here, still ranks very high on the list of possibles. That notion would seem to be reinforced by CNN releasing Don Lemon at precisely the same moment. Not many have mentioned it, but I have yet to see any contradictory evidence to that notion.
Bill O’Reilly seems to think that the action by Fox in the matter is itself a reaction to forthcoming lawsuits. I’d say whatever the lawsuits are that are coming probably won’t hold a candle to the nearly 1 billion dollars worth of losses on the stock over the last few days.
But this forces a question: Where are these suits actually coming from?Somebody’s paying the legal bills. Who? And, why? How much of the lawsuit action going on with regards to Fox is being funded by George Soros, for example? We don’t know, but it’s not hard to see his fine hand in all of this, given the seemingly organized action in that area.
It does seem clear that Carlson was being taken to the woodshed over the January 6th coverage. Apparently, somebody’s seriously afraid that the left will be damaged by the truth coming out.
The notion of inside influence occurs to me as well. For example, I would be very interested in need to see a breakdown of stockholders with an eye toward of the stock is controlled by China, for example. that’s a question I’ve not seen anybody ask, yet.
As this is written Tucker Carlson is apparently doing just fine, [2] thank you. He’s had several offers but I believe I mentioned yesterday that he was taking the news director’s position at OAN. And when his viewers follow him to his new digs, the financial damage to Fox will be even greater.
And all of this just as we are ramping up to the presidential election cycle. That can’t be a coincidence.