May 26, 2011 6:05 PM

Fox News keeping Sarah Palin on payroll

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
Campaign 2012
(Credit: AP)

Fox News is not taking contributor Sarah Palin off its payroll despite moves that suggest she may be gearing up for a presidential run.

"We are not changing Sarah Palin's status," Bill Shine, Executive Vice President of programming for Fox News Channel, told CBS News in a statement. Palin earns $1 million per year as a commentator on Fox News.

In March, Fox News suspended contracts with a pair of contributors, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, because they were gearing up for presidential runs. The network said the contracts would be terminated after 60 days unless they declared they were not running for president. Gingrich has since announced his run, and Santorum will do so June 6.

Speaking of Palin and Mike Huckabee at the time, Fox News executive vice president of legal and business affairs Dianne Brandi said, "[a]s soon as each of them shows some serious intention to form an exploratory committee, we would take the same action."

Palin has not set up a presidential exploratory committee. She has been raising money for her political action committee, which cannot go to a presidential campaign.

Palin announced Thursday that she was embarking on a bus tour across the East Coast in what is being seen as a precursor to a possible presidential run.

"We'll celebrate the good things that bring Americans together; those things that will give us the needed strength to meet the heady challenges ahead," she said. "I've said many times that America doesn't need a 'fundamental transformation,' instead we need a restoration of all that is good and strong and free in America!"

Palin has also recently added to her staff and is believed to be moving to Arizona, where it would be easier to run a presidential campaign than in her home state of Alaska. There is also a celebratory documentary about Palin planned for release over the summer.


Add a Comment See all 34 Comments
by Rodeo_Joe May 27, 2011 1:51 PM EDT
The GOP = Guardians of Privilege
Reply to this comment
by rmacgilv May 27, 2011 12:41 PM EDT
So to sum up for the majority of comments regarding this story,bias is bad when Fox does it but it's okay when the rest of the media is engaged in it every day.Oh,okay.
Reply to this comment
by Lindag10 May 27, 2011 10:34 AM EDT
Nothing like having your cake and eating it too. If Faux is dumb enough to pay her that kind of $$$, it's on them.
Reply to this comment
by tb1980 May 27, 2011 10:23 AM EDT
Hey Sarah, can you see the illeagals running accross the border from your new house now? Sure beats the heck out of Russia!
Reply to this comment
by Riverjump May 27, 2011 9:53 AM EDT
I would bet even Sarah is suprised at the money fox is willing to give her for her, ahem, insight. Shine isn't so bright now is he?
Reply to this comment
by julesarcher1 May 27, 2011 9:29 AM EDT
For a million dollar a year salary, you would normally expect to see a person contributing to society in some way, wouldn't you?
Reply to this comment
by Mamalon-Tequila May 27, 2011 9:20 AM EDT
This pretty much seals the deal... No Prez Palin in 2013.
Reply to this comment
by JV1970 May 27, 2011 10:38 AM EDT
That's what YOU think! I think differently!
by stn_sage May 27, 2011 9:10 AM EDT
In this day and age, WHY this should surprise anyone, is beyond me!
One questionable news network, keeps an equally questionable, pandering perennial presidential wannabee candidate, whose predominant occupation in life is to eek out every possible dollar from any situation she can get herself into...have entered into this unholy alliance to mutually enrich themselves at the expense of the public...is neither surprising nor unusual and the harbinger of things to come, in what will probably be the most demented and crooked political year yet...2012!!
Reply to this comment
by P0ST1ING_AWAY May 27, 2011 8:46 AM EDT
by justme2012 May 27, 2011 7:56 AM EDT
Obama is still being covered-up by the media. Try to find the story about the unanimous senate vote against Obama's 2012 budget.

They lob him softball questions because if they ask anything hard they will be called racist.
==================================================
I think FAUX NOISE should do an investigation and try to
determine the source of the stains on your dress.
Reply to this comment
by obwan222 May 27, 2011 8:29 AM EDT
"Obama is still being covered-up by the media. Try to find the story about the unanimous senate vote against Obama's 2012 budget."

ABCNews - In France, White House Responds to Senate Vote Against Obama Budget - 'Yesterday's votes in the Senate against the president's budget plan and the Republican budget plan only reinforce what the president has said many times: both sides will need to give some ground in order to reach a bipartisan agreement on meaningful deficit reduction," said White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest, traveling with the presodemt in France for the G8 Summit. "This is precisely the goal of the bipartisan, bicameral working group that vice president is leading and that met again today.'

CNN - "the Senate achieved rare bipartisan unanimity in rejecting Obama's budget plan on a 97-0 vote. The defeat was expected... Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the plan to signal they wanted a stronger deficit reduction proposal than what the president offered.

NYTimes - "the Senate voted 97 to 0 on Wednesday to reject the budget put forward early this year by President Obama, reflecting a recognition by Democrats that they will have to do more than they initially proposed to rein in the expansion of the national debt and address the rising costs of Medicare and other entitlement programs."

=========

Bee, imagine that. There are a lot more but you get the idea - seek and ye shall find.

Of course, none of these will be good enough because they aren't attack pieces. They actually put the vote in context for those were asking themselves, "Why would they do that?"

First you'll say the MSM didn't report the event. When you're proven wrong, you'll say that they slanted the story. If you're proven wrong, then you'll say that they should have attacked Obama. If you're proven wrong, you'll say that they should have asked for his birth certificate.

Nothing will ever be good enough for the fringe elements - especially reality - that never pleases them.
Reply to this comment
by stn_sage May 27, 2011 9:02 AM EDT
Oh, apologist of Obama...oh, defender of the police state...pray tell us, WHAT does your comment have to do with the topic of the article, Sarah Palin?! It doesn't, does it?! Stick to the subject, you're NOT topical!
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