As you can see by Cavuto and Roberts’ reaction, it was a carefully coordinated and long-planned move:
Neil Cavuto and John Roberts clearly blind-sided by Shep Smith departure pic.twitter.com/36ijhC8th6
— Nicole Lafond (@Nicole_Lafond) October 11, 2019
Speculation is rampant, but apparently Barr met with Rupert Murdoch a couple of days ago. You fill in the blanks.
As with Chris Wallace, I think Smith got a lot of bonus points for his mere existence at a propaganda outlet. And his presence didn’t keep Fox addicts from getting a massive dose of lies from Hannity and the rest of the opinion numbskulls. Still, it’s too bad that there will one less decent guy at that hellhole.
germy
He won’t be reporting anywhere else in the near future. I guess a non-compete item in his contract?
jl
Fox News is bottling up Smith, even with a resignation. The Fox News brass must be really pissed, or really scared of what he might way, or both.
How much time is left on his contract?
@joshtpm
” he apparently had to agree not to report or appear anywhere else as part of being allowed to leave fox. fox is weird. ”
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1182753664131325954
I don’t agree with Marshall saying that is weird. Far more respectable media companies have done the same when they are really pissed for really scared. It is punishment or an example to others, or both. I don’t see how that kind of thing can, or should, be legal, but I guess that is how corporations are allowed to rule us all in the US.
germy beat me to it. I thought Smith would get some dispensation if he went relatively quietly, but looks like not.
germy
NYT
Leto
I’m sure he had a no-compete clause in his contract, so it’ll be interesting to see where he lands. Maybe he’ll take up knitting and just go away… /s
Elizabelle
From the FTF NY Times coverage: Their original headline was Shep Smith Abruptly Leaves Fox News. They have removed “abruptly.”
jl
@Leto: If I understand correctly, no compete clauses are illegal in California. I think they should be illegal anywhere.
@Leto: OTOH, with a Fox News celeb, hard to say if they would be any use anywhere else. Good chance Smith would flame out like Kelly at another network. From a token to a mess.
Anyone at Fox News who says they are surprised or shocked is lying. Been know for a while that corrupt Fox News brass has been telling Smith to knock off the actual reporting, or else. They all know exactly what kind of crooks the work for, including Smith.
Elizabelle
Yeah, that no-compete is bad news.
Maybe some House committee could call him up to testify on goings on at Fox News? That would be entertaining.
Just Chuck
Whereas I’m happy to see one fewer “good guy” at that fascist hellhole. Removes what flimsy cover they have left.
Marcopolo
According to reporting he was escorted out of the building by security. Maybe that is Fox’s standard policy but I’m kind of doubting it and also doubting this was in any way an actual voluntary move on Shephard’s part.
BC in Illinois
Nothing says “voluntary departure” like being escorted out of the building by security.
ETA – Or, what Marcopolo said.
Elizabelle
Oh well. It’s not like we watched those fuckers anyway.
Barry
“Still, it’s too bad that there will one less decent guy at that hellhole.”
If there are *zero* honest men in Fox, then why should God not destroy the place?
Mary G
Twitler’s been on a complete temper tantrum over the Fox New poll where 51% said he should be impeached, and isn’t shy telling his rubes about it. He scored the whole lineup recently. I didn’t see it, but I imagine Smith got a low number. QAnon fans have probably been calling for his head, so he had to go.
Yarrow
His show was weird with those giant screens behind him. I never watch Fox News at all but occasionally see clips or it’s on somewhere. Never understood that setting for his show.
germy
In other media news, Matt Lauer’s old boss (the one who advised him to go hard after Hillary for the Town Hall) is now in the news.
Yarrow
@germy: Finally! It was obvious Andy Lack knew what Matt Lauer was doing.
germy
@Mary G: Maybe a lie detector test for all the rally attendees. To see who said what on the poll.
I read he constantly threatens staff with lie detectors every time there’s another leak.
germy
@Yarrow: It’s all in Ronan’s book.
Lots of sweat stains lately in some very expensive suits.
Mary G
@Mary G: FYWP says I don’t have permission to edit my comment. I wanted to add that this is probably meant to frighten people still on the network to not criticize Dear Leader. Hasn’t Cavuto been saying a few bad things? Maybe some of his shock and emotion is wondering if he could be next.
eric
@jl: You are correct about California, so that he can be a “local” newsperson there. Also, non-compete’s need to cite a protectible interest and be reasonable in temporal and geographic scope. I have not litigated press competes, but i have done a fair amount of that sort of litigation. I dont see a protectible interest, though i think a national geographic scope would pass muster. But, he should be safe in California.
jl
Since this is a media post, I have to say I think Warren is making a rare campaign misstep trying to milk the Wohl and Burkman sexcapade stunt. Maybe she was pissed that they were moving on and not going to do another one on her.
@AlxThmp
” Warren gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly about Ballers ahead of the series finale. “Who doesn’t like The Rock? And I have to say, who doesn’t love The Rock’s wardrobe choices…Those vests and the pink shirts…Oh man, it is eye candy.”
https://twitter.com/AlxThomp/status/1182704808450547712
dmsilev
@Barry:
Sadly, the role of ‘God’ has been filled by a tag team of Loki and Mammon for the last few years.
Elizabelle
@germy: I would love to see Andrew Lack go in ignominy. Like Les Moonves.
And I hope Ronan Farrow takes his investigative skills to seeing what is really going on at the Fuck the Fucking Giuliani-fed New York Times. You know there are some NY Times writers who would talk.
Leto
@jl: I thought he was reporting from the same NYC building as the rest of the Gozer the Destroyer worshippers? Maybe he can go to Breitbart or start his own podcast?
Edit: oh, via Eric @#20, I see what you meant about California. Got it.
@Elizabelle: No, but it was always interesting to see an anti-Fox take on their network. Maybe he was their token to the Fairness Doctrine/ “Fair and Balanced” slogan they rid themselves of? It also didn’t help that his one hour of programming was drown out by 23 hours of sewage. /shrug
germy
https://www.thecut.com/2019/10/ronan-farrow-catch-and-kill-nbc-cover-up.html#_ga=2.37471655.642781306.1570817981-906248547.1570817981
smintheus
Propaganda operates by repetition, variation, and (selective) appeal to authority. The latter is all about credibility; propaganda fails if it is being spread only by people with little credibility. That’s why, for example, propagandists will sometimes mention things that appear to run counter to their messaging – the point is to lend themselves greater credibility by occasionally grasping a nettle.
That’s why it’s better in the long run if the non-looney Fox “News” employees decamp.
guachi
Speaking of Fox News, they have a new poll out. Fox is a good polling outfit.
Pelosi approval – 42% (record high in the poll. 21 polls dating back to 2007)
Democratic primary:
Biden – 32%
Warren – 22%
Sanders – 17%
Second choice:
Warren – 24%
Sanders – 17%
Biden – 13%
The poll shows how voting would go if Biden or Warren or Sanders wasn’t in the race. Unfortunately, these are the last three likely to drop out. However, we can use this to see how much support is likely to come when everyone else drops out.
If everyone else dropped out, this is what it would look like:
Biden – 35% (+3%)
Warren – 31% (+9%)
Sanders – 21% (+4%)
Head-to-Head:
Biden 50 Trump 40
Warren 50 Trump 40 (best showing for Warren)
Sanders 49 Trump 40
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One of Trump’s protections was Trump was seen as one of the boys by the media, but getting another personality sacked could break that. Pretty safe to say Smith’s friends will remember this,
So what’s for Fox next, sacking their posters for not telling Trump what he wants to hear?
jl
@Leto: No, I was venting about how noncompete clauses are bad and should be illegal everywhere. Banning them in California hasn’t hurt business. We are still doing better than rest of US, on average, on jobs and GDP growth.
Bill Arnold
@germy:
I seriously wonder how D.J. Trump would handle a lie detector.
Mary G
@germy: Rebecca Traister has a piece up about Farrow’s book and the atmosphere at NBC News:
ETA: Link https://www.thecut.com/2019/10/ronan-farrow-catch-and-kill-nbc-cover-up.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=thecut
Cacti
They can’t afford to keep their token honest person around anymore.
jl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Trump is too self-centered and stupid for it even to occur to him that betraying and threatening anyone who has ever helped him might ever cause problems. He’s always gotten away with it before.
germy
Leto
@jl: Yeah, I see that now. We’re simpatico :)
Kent
@jl: I doubt Shep Smith had the same sort of traditional noncompete clause that say a low level tech employee might have had. He probably more likely walked out with a big fat multi-million dollar exit bonus that was wrapped up with a noncompete and nondisparagement clause. In other words, they probably bought him off. Which would be legal, even in CA.
VeniceRiley
Hope Shep writes a tell all book with his time off.
jl
@guachi: Best news is that Trump just never gets more than around 40 percent in these polls. I’ve read pollsters and election analysts opine that he needs 5 or 6 more points nationally. The Trumpster reelection plan seems to be to rile the base enough that four or five die hard Trumpsters will eek out a win in a couple of states and Trump can win electoral college with that. Apparently, inability to get out of very low 40s is a sign that stunt will be very difficult to pull off.
But, I have to wonder, with Trump visibly pissing off, and scaring, more the GOP, and national GOP throwing its weight around with state party organizations, if GOP electors can be counted on to be faithful anymore.
Bill Arnold
@dmsilev:
Loki might play, for funz. In the mean time, one thing that gets Fox News’s attention is advertiser boycotts.
These are Tucker Carlson’s leading advertisers (08/26/2019)
Rupert Murdoch has been remarkably spry for someone his age. Almost as if he regularly consumes the blood plasma of youth via transfusions. (This is a thing among some of the very rich.)
jl
@Kent: Yeah, Smith knew who he was working for. He might have had Comey syndrome at Fox News, admiring himself as the last honest man there. Not sure he wants to continue his job at another place, where on average, standards are a noticeable bit (but not a whole lot) higher.
Edit: maybe Smith has to go a a bothsides bootcamp to prepare himself the rigors of CBS or similar joint.
Roger Moore
@jl:
Non-compete clauses are distressingly common, but they actually make some kind of sense for a high-level employee like Smith. Non-competes make sense when the person involved has unique value to the company that might hurt them if that person left for a competitor, and when the person is well represented in contract negotiations so they can make a reasonable bargain in exchange for having the clause in their contract. Both of those would seem to be true of Smith, so having a non-compete doesn’t seem completely unreasonable in his case. Where it’s clearly unfair is when it’s a mandatory requirement for all contracts, even for low-level people who have no real leverage in their negotiations.
Leto
@Bill Arnold: Last night Colbert had a good quip about that, that basically any polygraph that came within ten feet of Trumpov simply gave up the ghost. Seems reasonable.
@Mary G:
Kay pointed that out earlier wrt lawyers, and how Chuck Rosenberg came out and apologized for thinking Barr was a traditionalist. That at that level, they all know each other, and basically operate on shared experience level. Unfortunately I think most professions operate like that. Once you get to a certain level, basically everyone is all friends. They all went to the same universities, pledged the same frats/sororities. As Kay continually says, we need better elites.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@jl: More like Trump thinks he’s gotten away with it before, it was Trump sacking Comey because Trumped hated owing Comey that started the whole Mueler thing. And a case in point, firing Comey and Sessions lost Trump the establishment conservatives who normally are a Republican president’s best defense against corruption charges.
jl
@Kent: Maybe so. I think the California ban was designed to protect lower level workers. I don’t know about other places, but in California the situation was getting ridiculous and outrageous. I read stories about corporate sandwich shop outlets were making employees sign noncompete clauses on the grounds that counter sandwich jockeys knew the secrets of the secret sauces and special construction of their special sandwiches. As if anyone can tell the difference between a Togo sammich and a similar in a neighborhood joint.
lynno
How much hush money involved in his removal from Fox?
NotMax
Spoke my piece downstairs so shall just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Although wouldn’t it be a hoot if the BBC brought him on board as a London-based reporter on the U.S.?
Patricia Kayden
So Judge Napolitano and Chris Wallace may be on borrowed days as well since they also speak the truth about Dear Leader from time to time.
debbie
How fed up must ol’ Shep have been?
Yarrow
Heh. Tick tock, Rudy.
Elizabelle
@debbie: I wonder if they gagged him, in addition to non-competing him. Will we see him all over the place giving interviews? Very curious.
Martin
@Leto:
Yeah, that’s completely true.
I will add this. Honest people are honest in honest situations and don’t know how to be dishonest in dishonest situations. Dishonest people are dishonest in dishonest situations but usually smart enough to be honest in honest situations. If you only interact with people in honest situations – which a lot of university tends to be, or (typically) working in govt, etc. then they’ll always seem like honest people. You need to throw them into a dishonest situation to see who they really are. These people who are around Trumps actions but not part of them, but also not whistleblowers – they know how to be dishonest. They deserve no props for steering clear of the criminality – that’s just them making a strategic decision.
This is what honest people look like. They point to where the criminal is, even when they are potentially in danger.
NotMax
@Bill Arnold
Paging Dr. Brinkley. Dr. John Romulus Brinkley….
:)
(Documentary, BTW, is available on Prime.)
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Hateful though they are, they are not stupid. I’m sure he’s bound and gagged for a very long time.
Patricia Kayden
This hasn’t been a good work for Trump.
https://twitter.com/lawfareblog/status/1182729238362939395
Good.
sdhays
@jl: I’m not aware of Smith showing his ass the way Kelly did with her “white Jesus” and “white Santa” diatribes, so I won’t bother rooting for his failure the way I did for her (although she “failed” by bilking NBC for tens of millions of dollars, so…). But, speaking of Kelly, I can’t help but feel like the Andy Lack news sheds new light on the absolute disaster he engineered for NBC by hiring her. He wanted to fuck her, and that’s why he poached her from Fox News. I’m not saying he necessarily thought he would get the chance (but he probably did because guys like him always think they can), but he thought that since he desperately wanted to fuck her, she would be a success. Her appeal outside of Fox was always dubious, but he couldn’t see that because (very) little Andy was doing the “thinking”.
lamh36
@BC in Illinois: “Escorted out by security”!!!
That says FIRED or abruptly QUIT to me. You rarely need to call security for someone who voluntarily resigns and gives 2 weeks notice.
A Ghost To Most
I’m just back from 5 days in Ouray and the San Juan Mtns.
Did I miss anything?
Yarrow
Yeah, this is pretty much my impression of them:
They’ll have to be made to do what’s right. They’ll never, ever do it on their own. And there have to be major consequences for breaking the law.
Yarrow
@A Ghost To Most: Not a thing. Slow news week. Dull by dull standards.
Kent
@jl: The NYT probably needs another “both sides” mouthpiece as Mr. Brent “bedbug” Stevens seems to be defenestrating himself in broad daylight. Perhaps the Fox News noncompete applies only to on-air work and we will see Shep pick up a pen. He will land somewhere like that. They always do.
jl
@sdhays: A few years ago, I would have dismissed your hypothesis as insane. But events have overtaken my naive thinking.
I think a new rape charge, worse than previous, came out earlier this week about the despicable Lauer.
I can’t say I have any special knack for reading personalities, but something about Lauer’s manner and behavior always struck as indicating a particularly nasty and untrustworthy personality. But serial rape didn’t come to mind. I was naive.
eric
I dont have a ton of time to research, but there are states taht have explicitly banned broadcast noncompetes. for example, in August 2008.
Thursday, New York Governor David Paterson signed the Broadcast Employees Freedom to Work Act, which removes the power of non-compete clauses. The legislation applies to TV, radio, cable and even satellite broadcasters. Read the bill here.
Martin
@jl: No, CAs non-compete is based on much more fundamental thinking.
CA is very pro-worker, and essentially a non-compete clause is an extension of an employment contract for one party at the expense of another. Once the contract ends (you stop getting paid) your employer loses all authority over telling you what to do. That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Additionally, CA has come to recognize that non-compete is bad for the economy, particularly one that is so dependent on startups. Half of the companies CA is known for wouldn’t exist if non-competes were enforceable.
But a lot of this also traces back to early Hollywood when a lot of stars had contracts with a particular studio and couldn’t do work for other studios. That situation was seen as unsustainable, and it was the talent that was most affected, not the lower level employees.
jl
@Kent: Maybe. But maybe bothsides bootcamp is a very demanding program, everyone not cut out for it. Maybe Smith will retire on with his loot.
jl
@Martin: Thanks for info.
eric
@Martin: if i recall, it is a statutory ban, so there is no wiggle room for judges. It has been a while, but my understanding is that even if the employee was in State A and the agreement says State A law controls, if the employee wants to work in California, then the State A stuff is irrelevant. but it has been a while since i looked at that
Yarrow
Pretty much he was fired.
hells littlest angel
The real victim here is Tucker Carlson, who was going to beat up Shep in the men’s room any day now.
Patricia Kayden
@hells littlest angel: And mess up his bowtie? No way!
Patricia Kayden
@Yarrow: Shep is better off now. He can get a job at a non-propaganda network.
Martin
@Yarrow: I think that’s too broad to apply to all of silicon valley. I think it’s fair for the information aggregators like Facebook and Google, but Silicon Valley is also Tesla and LSI and Intel. I don’t mean to suggest they are a paragon of virtue, but I don’t think they’re ethically any different from Honda or Whirlpool or Levis.
I think really what you’re describing is simply a side effect of the internet where ‘winner take all’ is an unavoidable goal simply because you can reach ‘all’ without having to spend decades building out infrastructure (like physical stores) to reach everyone. Combine that with a product or service that has network effects, like Facebook and Google, and anything less than all is potential failure.
That doesn’t really apply to most silicon valley companies though.
Bill Arnold
@NotMax:
The FDA tried to shut these vampire methods down in early 2019, but they persist. E.g.
NuPlasma yFFP was associated with improvements in complications of therapy, motor examination scores, mentation, behavior, and mood, and in activities of daily living in patients with Parkinson disease. (Matt Hoffman, April 25, 2019)
And one can be sure that there is a underground market, perhaps sometimes with lifestyle enhancements for the donators. For the real dark side, search on “red market”. Ugly stuff, worldwide.
Kay
@Martin:
I don’t know if I would be a whistleblower in some of those positions so I’m not judging them.
I am judging the lawyers though- they’re supposed to report and they know it. They have to decide who their client is- it’s either Donald Trump, personally, or the United States- it can’t be both. Decide. Choose. As far as I’m concerned it’s theft of honest services from the public if they’re working for Trump. They all know what a conflict is and they all know what they’re supposed to do about it. We don’t lack rules, lawyers.
Another Scott
@Patricia Kayden: For those who didn’t click:
Twitter:
Shock, shocking.
It’s almost as if Donnie actually has to take care that the laws passed by Congress actually have to be faithfully executed or something. Whodathunkit.
Seriously – the courts work slowly, but the law is so very clear in these cases that Donnie should expect them to keep ruling against him as long as he is in office.
Good, good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@eric: That’s correct. CA says the employee is here, we don’t fucking care where your CEO shits.
There are a few carve-outs. I know one is for trade secrets. Employees may not transfer those to a new employer.
If people step back and think about it – the whole theory behind capitalism is that competition is inherently good. Non-competes are therefore inherently anti-capitalistic. That’s part of why CA bans them. They stifle innovation, and CA has done pretty well for itself on the innovation front and knows that trillion dollar companies could wield them in incredibly damaging ways to the economy. Plus, it’s just really shitty to workers. You basically force a worker into unemployment in some cases, making them a burden on the taxpayer simply because you’re afraid they’ll do what you do, but better. Why the fuck should that be protected?
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I wonder when, and how long he will have to fend off that non-compete.
I wonder if it covers print journalism too.
Mostly, I hope that once he gets over being shocked, he vacations in a beautiful fall setting, with lots of good coffee and whatever he likes. Rests up and comes out fighting.
pattonbt
It’s pretty simple. Trump sees Fox slipping. It’s his only life line. If he loses that he is beyond toast. Shep Smith is the closest to straight personality there, nowhere near the dear leader sycophant like the others. So I imagine trump privately rails against Smith. And with new fox polls showing unflattering numbers for trump, trump had enough.
I really think the Barr Murdoch meeting was as simple as Barr saying “1) fox, you’re slipping and 2) get Smith out”
Fox is going to slide crazy even more. The signal has been sent to the staff, “trump or die”.
Mai naem mobile
I wonder if they can stop him setting up a YouTube channel or something to that effect where he is not getting paid. I find it hard to believe they can stop him from that. That would be unreasonable. I just think he can be a real pain in the ass if he could do something like that. Enough of a pain in the ass that they would let him go to CNN or whatever and move on. Gawd, Trumpov is such a whiny little poussez.
Leto
@Martin: Good points and thanks for the link.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I’d almost bet he will pop up on 60 Minutes.
A Ghost To Most
@Yarrow: I figured. There wasn’t much happening when we left. /S
We timed the leaves perfectly, and had the last 3 days of high altitude drives before Thursday’s snow shut the roads down. Much better than watching the Shit Show.
Martin
@Kay: But that’s what being a public employee is. You don’t work for Trump. You work for the voters. That’s the whole point of doing that kind of work.
I work for the taxpayers of CA. A set of laws and policies have been established to ensure that we’re doing the work of the citizenry properly. My job is to follow those, and I’ll whistleblow on anyone who doesn’t.
Mai naem mobile
I get that Barr and Trumpov want only.propaganda on Fox but you can’t listen to Fox 24×7 and avoid everything else. You go to get your car fixed and they have CNN on or the Today show. You aren’t going to be able to avoid the bad news on Trumpov especially as it gets worse.
topclimber
REPOSTED from dead thread because All is Vanity.
I have seen many wistful posts from these parts about Baud’s disappearance during the last several days. Many reasons for his flight have been advanced, but isn’t it obvious he is a paid troll?
Think of all those years he helped keep commenters on this site from achieving incandescent levels of flame warfare by reductio ad absurdum. If not for jesters like him, we would surely have reached leftist perfection by now–at least for the two or three people left standing or caring. Clearly hostile actors wanted us not to take our glorious revolution seriously ALL THE TIME. and he played along.
NOW his paymasters want internecine bloodshed to abound on near top-10,000 blogs such as this one. They want to distract from the gathering shitstorm orchestrated by our so-called common foes. Go ahead and check. I guarantee he is not on any blogs of similar stature anywhere else. Think that’s a coincidence?
No more Baud? I for one say good riddance. A droll troll he be, but a troll nonetheless.
Is it not bad enough that the Russians want to ratf-ck our elections. But Baud 2020 too! The horror!
Philbert
So long Shep! Maybe a fig leaf but brought some sanity to people who rarely see it. I could say back to those people, ‘even on FOX news I saw…’. Hope we hear from him down the pike. I wonder who the hero was who worded the impeachment poll question ‘is Trump getting what he deserves?’.
Bill Arnold
@pattonbt:
And the saner among the staff read that as “trump and die”.
Elizabelle
@A Ghost To Most: Sounds like a wonderful trip.
Ladyraxterinok
@germy:
Good reporting. But OMG!!
germy
Pompeo is pissed. He doesn’t want to answer questions about Rudy.
https://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/pompeo-refuses-to-say-if-he-met-with-giuliani-on-february-warsaw-trip-71084101815
Bill Arnold
@topclimber:
:-).
germy
@Ladyraxterinok: Makes me want to buy the book.
And I usually avoid these big hardcover non-fiction tomes.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore: I’m so old that I remember when anchors jumped from NBC to CBS to ABC and back. Smith wasn’t as big a big shot as Connie Chung or those others so he should be able to do the same, and I expect that he eventually will.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
So, should we expect Trump’s Fox approval poll numbers to suddenly jump up to Rasmussen levels?
burnspbesq
@jl:
If you can’t tell the difference among Togo’s, Quizno’s, and Subway, you’re not paying attention.
rikyrah
@Mary G:
Fox polling is a legitimate business.
Rasmussen is the Fox of polling.
johnnybuck
All skullduggery aside, it’s pretty clear that the back and forth between FOX after hours was becoming more of a problem to the network. The profitable side won out. It’s that simple. He was bad for the brand.
burnspbesq
@eric:
I’ve had that conversation with employers a couple of times, when employment agreements by their terms were governed by the law of a state other than CA. CA, as the state where the employee works, has a stronger interest than the corporate HQ state in having its law applied—and CA courts don’t fuck around with choice of law issues.
burnspbesq
The other fun conversation about non-competes involves lawyers who work for accounting firms: “so, you’re not engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, but you want to restrict my ability to practice law?”
Short conversation.
patrick II
@germy:
Pompeo has the same tell as Trump when he’s telling a nervous lie, as opposed to just an everyday lie, — he speaks barely above a whisper.
Bill Arnold
@johnnybuck:
The brand is increasingly bad for the brand.
Ladyraxterinok
@Roger Moore:
One surprising aspect of the scandals that finally brought down Mark Driscoll, pastor of megachurch Mars Hill in Seattle was the number of non compete deals he had with men working on staff. They agreed no to start a ministry in the area.
Not what you’d expect of a religious outfit.
Note–after being apparently totally disgraced, Mark and his wife started a new church in SoWeast, Arizona I think.
Robert Morris, megachurch pastor helped start his rehabilitation. Morris has preached many times about being demon possessed. I’ve watched him a few times on TBN. He can be quite entertaining.
The real entertaining, super good story-teller old-time good ol’ boy, down-home preacher is Jesse DuPlantis. He can make a really good tale of why you simply must give him money for a new airplane to carry him around the world to save people from the devil.
patrick II
@jl:
Are you talking about the EU, the Kurds, Canada, Mexico, Romney, Giuliani, Tillerson, the Mooch, any woman who’s ever come near him, or someone else?
Roger Moore
@Martin:
That’s true, but even there it’s up to the old employer to prove that the former employee transferred the trade secrets; they can’t just assume that was going to happen and block someone who might have trade secrets. A good example of this is the big suit between Waymo and Uber. Waymo alleges that a former employee took trade secrets with him when he went to Uber, but A) he was allowed to make the move even though he was a senior person at Waymo and had access to the trade secrets and B) they’re having to go through a nasty lawsuit to prove that he took the secrets with him.
germy
Now we know who Rudy was yelling at when he yelled “Asshole!” at his TV (reporter was on the phone with his assistant and heard it in the background)
It was 3:00. Same time as Shep was reporting the Rudy/two fleeing thugs story.
Rudy watches Fox.
Roger Moore
@Mai naem mobile:
That’s why they spend so much time trying to smear the rest of the media as Fake News. They may not be able to stop viewers from encountering the news elsewhere, but they can try to indoctrinate them into disbelieving anything that disagrees with their established POV.
jl
@patrick II: What have they ever done for Trump? I’m talking about his flunkies, and the ‘sound’ ‘adults in the room’ who tried to keep him from self-destructing.
satby
@topclimber: that is a masterpiece of snark.
Baud, is that you??
jl
@burnspbesq: I said ‘neighborhood’ joint. You can always find a local knock off for all those, which is indistinguishable or better than the chains.
And, you didn’t mention Arby’s!
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I wonder if the companies were better places to work and treated their employees as an integral part of the business rather than cost item that non compete agreements might not be necessary. BTW I don’t think they should be legal, but that’s just me.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby:
Hmmm, I’m not the only one who thought that.
Elizabelle
@satby: I know. It was masterly, and someone who knows his/her way around jackals.
Hungry Joe
I’m unclear about ol’ Shep’s position. Should he break the agreement — e.g., go to work for Socialist Commie News Network Inc. LLC LTD, or whatever — what can Fox do to him? If their only recourse is to reclaim his $$$ severance package and/or cut off the remaining $$$ they owe him on his contract, then couldn’t he say, “Keep your money, I’m rich enough. And I can get a better job anyway”? Or could they sue him for some other “damages”? That is to say, is a truckload of $$ the only reason he’ll stay mum, or could he lose everything?
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
My feeling is that non-compete contracts are at least theoretically useful for key personnel, but that they need to be part of a genuine give and take negotiation. Part of that is that a non-compete should come at a real price to the company, like continuing to pay the employee their old salary for the term of the non-compete, even if they find a good-paying job at a non-competitor. That would ensure that they’re protecting a serious interest of the company, rather than just being an obstacle to employees using competing offers to ask for more money.
NotoriousJRT
@Bill Arnold:
I seriously wonder how D.J. Trump would handle a lie detector.
Or, for that matter, how would a lie detector handle DJT? My guess? Lots of melted parts and a buried needle.
AnotherBruce
Get out Cavuto, while you can.
AnotherBruce
@AnotherBruce: And kill yourself Murdoch. It would be the most decent thing you ever have done.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It was my immediate first reaction too, but I foolishly posted it in the dying downstairs thread.
AnotherBruce
@Hungry Joe: You really don’t want Smith giving any money away to that pack of Hyenas.
I apologize to real Hyenas everywhere.
Gin & Tonic
@NotoriousJRT: I think DJT wouldn’t even budge the needle on a polygraph. He is convinced of the truth of the bullshit that comes out of his mouth, so it’s just like me remarking that it’s dark and windy out (it is.)
brantl
As Linus said in Peanuts: “He was a giant among lesser men.” He wasn’t that freaking shiny, he was just surrounded by men who had no principles, so the little that he had, and he had a few, so they looked like he had tons. It was only be comparison to his putrid surroundings that he seemed exceptional.
A Ghost To Most
@Elizabelle: It was, in part, a house hunting trip. We’re scouting Ridgway, where “True Grit” was filmed, as our next home. We even got to see it with a coat of snow. Magical place.
J R in WV
@Bill Arnold:
Wouldn’t bother him a bit — he’s a sociopath, doesn’t believe any of his fictions are lies at all.
janesays
Out of curiosity, if his departure was not actually voluntary, but he’s still bound by the non-compete, does that mean Fox is required to pay out the remainder of his contract? I don’t know how these things work. I know in professional baseball that when a player under contract is released by a team, that team is still obligated to pay the remainder of the player’s contract until another team comes along that is willing to pick up the bill (or at least part of it, with the original team staying on the hook for the remainder).
Smith was getting paid $15 million per year in his current contract – that’s more than most primetime hosts make on other cable news networks.