It's getting them. What is refreshing about Snow's screw-off attitude is, for one thing, that it's nice to hear a guy telling his bosses to screw off. Stuart Varney, who followed the blowhard Lou Dobbs at CNN, has reportedly told boss Ted Turner to screw off after the latter made a crack about ash-spots on Catholic foreheads. In any event, his screw-off stand is impressive not only because it reflects the presence of a backbone, but also because it reflects a correct take on the industry of which he is a part. Cable television, and not only Fox, is deep clover for political operatives and obsessives alike.
Nobody goes there looking for roundtables of drones pretending to offer neutral positions.
They go for the fights. The scrapping is often quite good. Then there's the vast horde of consultants, former speechwriters, pollsters, clerks, valets, and other political hacks who remind us, minute by minute, that politics is a petty, sniping, superficial, embarrassing, cynical necessity of life. One hopes that the Fox brass will come to its senses and get off Snow's back. Punishing a cable guy for being too political is like punishing a monk for being too religious.