Sarah Palin stringing Fox along?

Gabriel Sherman has written an article "The Elephant in the Green Room," for New York magazine. The article is about Roger Ailes, the Fox News Chairman. Fox has employed several potential candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination for President, and the article briefly describes how Fox has tried to get Sarah Palin to disclose whether she is going to run.

Fox has already shown Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich the door, because they were thought to be serious about running for the nomination. As for Palin, the article states:

... [Ailes ...] had little choice but to force the hands of the candidates on his payroll. In late February, Shine [Bill Shine, the network's programming chief] made calls to Palin and her husband, Todd, to ask if she was going to run for president. The Palins told him they hadn’t decided. “I’m not sure Sarah has made up her mind one way or the other,” a Palin adviser told me. The network is working hard to get a definitive answer out of her. ...

About two weeks earlier, Huckabee had been called into a meeting with Shine and Dianne Brandy, the network's general counsel, to be quizzed about his intentions, and, apparently, the network concluded that Huckabee wasn't seriously considering a run. They kept him, and, recently, Huckabee publicly said that he wouldn't run.

If Palin were running, she would have had to have left Fox News. If she does intend to run and is stringing the network along until she announces, then she may pay a price in terms of campaign coverage. Palin's may be an unusual case, however. Ailes is said to think, "Palin is an idiot," according to a Republican close to Ailes.

The article also describes how Ailes became disillusioned with Palin.

Fox to suspend Sarah Palin?

From The Atlantic's "Fox Suspends Gingrich, Santorum:"

Fox News has suspended contributor contracts for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, "both of whom have signaled possible runs for the presidency," network anchor Bret Baier announced today.

The suspension, which Baier said has been "contemplated from the start," is effective immediately and will last for 60 days. "On May 1, their contracts will be terminated unless they notify Fox that they are not running for president," Baier said. ...

... Two other potential GOP presidential contenders, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, remain on Fox's roster of contributors. Baier said today's announcement "does not preclude other announcements that may be made in the future." Los Angeles Times reporter Matea Gold, who first reported the suspensions via her Twitter account, tweeted that a Fox executive told her that if Palin and Huckabee show "some serious intention to form an exploratory committee, we would take the same action." ...

Gingrich and Santorum have been suspended before they've declared their candidacies. A suspension of Sarah Palin might be a reliable indicator that she is going to run.


The Los Angeles Times has a story, too, which states:

... Fox News still has two other potential White House contenders on the payroll: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"As soon as each of them shows some serious intention to form an exploratory committee, we would take the same action," Brandi [Dianne Brandi, the network's executive vice president of legal and business affairs] said. "Huckabee is on a book tour, so I think his present intention is to sell books."

As for Palin, "She hasn't yet shown a serious intention to form an exploratory committee." ...


Apparently, some are crying, "unfair." Politico has a story about that.