Fox News CEO Reportedly Called Meeting With Producers About Incendiary Comments
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott held a meeting with the network’s top show producers last week over a series of incendiary comments recently made on air, Politico reported.
The network has been marred by controversy in recent weeks, thanks to a series of comments made on air about the current immigration crisis: from Ann Coulter suggesting detained immigrant children were “child actors,” to Laura Ingraham comparing child migrant detention centers to “summer camps,” to Corey Lewandowski responding to the story of a disabled migrant child separated from her mother with a sad trombone sound, to David Bossie telling a black guest he’s “out of his cotton-picking mind.”
The outrage that met these controversies even encroached on other entities in Rupert Murdoch‘s vast media empire, when talent from FOX entertainment decried Fox News and threatened to jump ship.
That fierce backlash prompted the meeting called by Scott, Politico reported:
Scott told the producers that they would be held accountable for anything said on their air, and that it was their job to head off any inappropriate remarks, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. Appearing via video conference from Washington, D.C. to the group in New York, which also included programming executives, Scott read from a prepared script, explaining that she wanted to make sure she communicated her message precisely.
According to someone familiar with the meeting, Scott told producers that they are responsible for protecting the Fox News brand and its talent, and that “if something incendiary is said on their show, it is their job to get in the host’s ear and make sure they push back in the moment.”
Politico described Scott’s decision to read scripted remarks as “unusual” for the two month old CEO.
“Recent on-air statements by primetime host Laura Ingraham, as well as other guest commentators, about the child separation crisis at the border were viewed as so problematic,” one source told Politico, “that Scott told the group that, going forward, material about children should be scripted in advance and reviewed before airing.” Woof.
A Fox News spokesperson stated: “As the CEO of the network, Suzanne Scott regularly leads executive and editorial meetings and she expects accountability from her senior staff, which is what all good leaders do.”
Read the report here.
[image via screengrab]
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