Let’s hire that sexual harassment guy
Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who was close to Roger E. Ailes, the network’s ousted chairman, is expected to be offered the job of White House communications director, according to four people familiar with the decision.
Mr. Shine, who was forced out as co-president at Fox News last May for his handling of sexual harassment scandals at the network, has met with President Trump in recent weeks about taking the West Wing communications job, which has been vacant since Hope Hicks left the job in March.
Yeah! Fox News and an enabler of sexual harassment; win-win!
Four people familiar with the decision said it was likely to be announced and that the president had offered him the job. But the move has not been finalized, in part because of the president’s mercurial decision-making process and also because of Mr. Shine’s reluctance to walk into a chaotic West Wing.
Oh but think of all the fun, the glamour, the chocolate cake.
Mr. Shine’s stature at the network weakened in the wake of the revelations against Mr. Ailes, which included multiple allegations of sexual harassment and several multimillion dollar settlements with the women who made the accusations against him.
Mr. Shine was accused in several lawsuits of covering up Mr. Ailes’s behavior and dismissing concerns from women who complained about it. Mr. Shine has denied any wrongdoing or knowing about Mr. Ailes’s behavior.
Several former employees at Fox News reacted with alarm — but not surprise — to reports that Mr. Shine may move into the top communications job at the White House.
Several who spoke on the condition that they remain anonymous said they were aghast that Mr. Shine would receive an offer to work in the White House while women who came forward to accuse Mr. Ailes of harassment have seen their television careers founder.
Mr. Shine’s connection to the accusations against Mr. Ailes could be particularly sensitive for the president, who was also accused of sexual misconduct during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump has denied those accusations, and officials at the White House said they are aware that they may face blowback for appointing someone so closely tied to Mr. Ailes and the culture of harassment toward women at Fox News.
Of course they’re aware; that’s why he’s doing it. Trump loves to shove it in women’s faces. And all of ours.
Appropriate name for someone soon to be polishing turds.
@Bruce #1, and of course in Pratchett Mr. Shine is the troll king, although he is rather a sympathetic character in the book.
“Blowback” has two faces nowadays at least. It will rile the thoughtful, decent, ethical sorts, but those are all enemies of the administration anyway. It does nothing to appease them. In fact, Trump supporters become more supportive as the administration is condemned for every illegal, unethical, immoral, hateful, or pig-ignorant move it makes. Even the most “moderate” of them think the condemnation is a bit much, so they stand by Trump in reaction – and the least moderate consider angering liberals as an end in itself, or as a measure of political virtue. (In a backhanded way, it’s a compliment – we set the standards for discourse and acceptability, all they do is turn them upside down to get “values”. They haven’t even got religious scruple anymore, what with President Sin as their idol.)
Jeff, they lost religious scruple with Reagan, when they voted overwhelmingly for a man who had been divorced and remarried.
And the number of sexual offenders in their own community who are welcomed back after only a perfunctory repentance suggests that they were never that concerned about sexual sin in the first place. To them, the biggest sin is being a moderate-to-liberal Christian or not a Christian at all. They convinced themselves that Trump was a Christian (and if you are willing to concede that he thinks of himself as the Christ, then he is…but he doesn’t really believe in anything but himself and his money). After that, everything was copacetic.
“…they were never that concerned about sexual sin in the first place.”
Unless both participants were of the same sex. Or if women were to enjoy it without risk of pregnancy or forced birth.