“The TV News business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.” ….Hunter S. Thompson ( paraphrased.)

If you read my first book, “It Just Wasn’t Perfect For Me, My 50 Years in Television and Radio Broadcasting.,” (published on January 11, 2017), you probably already know why Tucker Carlson was fired from The Fox News Channel. Chapters 1 and 6 explains it all.

The very first chapter, tells how on my very first day in my career in broadcasting, the very first day on the job, how a greedy station manager demanded I play 3 hours of commercials non-stop because the station had been off the air for 3 hours and he did not want to lose any money! The money was more important than the programming content!

And chapter 6 outlines the total incompetency and stupidity of broadcast management, not only at the local level, but especially at the major networks.

We always used to joke in the newsroom about how the TV business works. It always went something like this: “ If someone on the air or in management was committing dastardly heinous crimes, but he was making big money for the station, the company would do everything they could to protect him. But if that person was straight and narrow and doing an excellent job, but the short term and or long term profits were sagging, they would get rid of him in a heartbeat!”

And there’s always been a divide between the conservatives and the liberals in the news operation. Fox News was founded by conservative Roger Ailes. He ran a tight ship. On 9-11 when terrorists attacked America, the Fox News Channel Anchors wore US Flag lapel pins to show support for our country. At the same time the Fox Television Stations, including channel 10 here in Phoenix, were run by Lachlan Murdoch. And we were told to remove our US Flag Lapel pins because we were not supposed to show bias towards America!

And, as you might know, in the ensuing years, Roger Ailes is jettisoned from the Fox News Channel and Lachlan Murdoch takes charge and is responsible for the day to day operations.

So you can make up your own conclusions about all this.

But know this, in the words of former Fox Anchor Megan Kelly, “TV News is a wicked business!”

and, of course:

“The TV News business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.” ….Hunter S. Thompson ( paraphrased.)