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| A Shell of his former self. |
The first kicked to the curb was the least famous. Jeff Shell, until Sunday the CEO of NBCUniversal, announced he was "leaving" (i.e., fired) for, as he put it, "an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company" which he, naturally, "deeply regrets" -- a phrase that's become such a cliche that my autofill just suggested it.
Here's another cliche. The day after copping to defecating where he eats, Shell was accused of -- guess what! -- sexual harassment by CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble. Looks like that gamble didn't pay off the way Shell hoped!
It looks like Harvey Weinstein 2.0. A powerful boss with the good looks of a hungover human toad uses his "charm" on young women who work for him. Rinse, lather, vomit. There's always a guy like this who thinks, I'm going to be the one who gets away with it! And they never do. How do people this stupid get so powerful?
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| Carlson greets management. |
Unlike the Shell firing, there was no explanation given. But when you get rid of your number one primetime host, there must be some pretty strong reasons. As of today, those include lying about the Trump presidential loss, claiming the 1/6 insurrection didn't really happen, insulting guests, misogyny, and antisemitism -- all of which I thought were Fox News selling points. Or was it simply badmouthing the boss? Ding ding ding!
There was a time when ol' Tuck was your ordinary conservative libertarian who occasionally had some interesting views you could ponder. From my view, that all started to change when he started going whole hog on MAGA mush, from the 2020 election to the insurrection to worshipping Putin. The result was knocking Fox colleague Sean Hannity from his rating's catbird seat. As Carlson continued to double down on his insanity, his mantra seemed to be, Whadda they gonna do -- fire me? Umm, well, now that you mention it...
Tucker Carlson has now earned his spot in television history as being the only host fired from CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Hey Tuck, I hear NewsMax is looking for an afternoon anchor. You don't mind taking a salary cut, do you?
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| "Are there any women here I haven't insulted yet?" |
And as with his Fox News counterpart (meaning arrogant jerk), no reason was given, but none was needed. Calling women over 50 past their prime earned him a three-day suspension. Deciding that a slap on the wrist like that didn't hurt, Lemon told his viewers that male soccer players should be paid more than women because men "were more interesting to watch." Not having made his misogyny clear enough, he would go on to get snippy with his co-host Kaitlan Collins about allegedly being "interrupted" by her.
As an amateur media observer, I thought it was pretty obvious that Lemon was able to get away "diva-like behavior" because no way was he going anywhere as long as Tucker Carlson could get away with his crap on Fox. And if you don't believe me, remember that Lemon got the squeeze just hours after Carlson. You can picture the CNN brass sending a Rupert Murdoch a case of Champagne with a big fat Thank You card for making their move possible.
The reasons for the firings of these three men are varied yet familiar, but they share one important fact: They got away with it until they didn't. They might have gotten fine educations, but that doesn't make them smart.
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