The winds of change at Fox News have blown away two longtime commentators, George Will and Ed Rollins. Also leaving the network are veteran newsman Marvin Kalb and syndicated columnist Cal Thomas.
Will was a fierce opponent of Donald Trump and left the Republican Party this past June after his nomination was secure.
In 2015 and 2016, Will had periodically feuded with the network’s highest-rated host, Bill O’Reilly, with Will once stating that O’Reilly’s best-selling book, “Killing Reagan” was “nonsensical” and “The Factor” host calling Will “a hack” in a subsequent interview.
[Stacey] Dash was signed by Fox in 2014 and was primarily seen on the afternoon news discussion program, “Outnumbered.” The 50-year-old Republican is best known for her co-starring role in the 1995 comedy, “Clueless.”
Political strategist Ed Rollins, 73, was a political commentator for CNN before jumping to Fox in 2011. He’s primarily known for serving as national campaign director for the successful Reagan-Bush 1984 campaign and currently co-chairs the pro–Trump Great America PAC.
Veteran journalist Marvin Kalb, 86, and syndicated columnist and radio commentator Cal Thomas, 74, also did not have their contracts renewed by the network.
On Friday, Fox announced the signing of former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage as a contributor.
Farage is a major backer of Brexit and outspoken supporter of President Trump.
Will’s intellectual conservatism was a light shining in the wilderness in the mid-1970s when the right was barely a blip on the national political radar. His was a consistent voice against liberal orthodoxy in the age of Carter and helped promote Reagan and his agenda before the country made its sharp turn to the right in the early 1980s.
Rollins, as savvy a political operator as ever worked in Washington, helped Reagan push through his tax and spending proposals while working in the White House.
The fact that both men achieved prominence during the Reagan era and are now out at Fox News is not a coincidence. Reagan is dead, the movement he led is dead, his ideas are on life support, and some of the people who were at the forefront of the Reagan revolution are now considered the enemy by Trump and his supporters. Reaganism is passé and in order to attract millennials, younger blood is needed in the Fox newsroom. Will, Rollins, Kalb, and Thomas were part of the ancien regime and thus became disposable.
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