According to the always well-sourced Gabriel Sherman in New York Magazine, Fox News has benched analysts Karl Rove and Dick Morris now that the election is over, requiring producers to get permission before bringing them on the show.
The reason for the benching? Rove’s now-infamous on-air battle with anchors Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier, which made for great TV, although at the expense of some FNC staffers, and the heat Morris has taken for essentially admitting that he was not being honest in some FNC appearances.
Both pundits made several appearances in the days after the election, but their visibility on the network has dropped markedly. Inside Fox News, Morris’s Romney boosterism and reality-denying predictions became a punch line. At a rehearsal on the Saturday before the election, according to a source, anchor Megyn Kelly chuckled when she relayed to colleagues what someone had told her: “I really like Dick Morris. He’s always wrong but he makes me feel good.”
AdvertisementA Fox spokesperson confirmed the new booking rules for Rove and Morris, and explained that Shine’s message was “the election’s over.”