Republican pundits did not fare well during the 2012 election season, and few did as much lasting damage to their reputations as Karl Rove and Dick Morris. The former had a strange, on-air tantrum on election night and running a wildly-unsuccessful campaign operation; the latter guaranteed a Romney landslide, then later admitted he lied as part of a larger partisan agenda.
Now, both men will be seen less often on their network of choice. Gabriel Sherman has the scoop.
The post-election soul searching going on inside the Republican Party is taking place inside Fox News as well. Fox News chief Roger Ailes, a canny marketer and protector of his network's brand, has been taking steps since November to reposition Fox in the post-election media environment, freshening story lines -- and in some cases, changing the characters.
According to multiple Fox sources, Ailes has issued a new directive to his staff: He wants the faces associated with the election off the air -- for now. For Karl Rove and Dick Morris -- a pair of pundits perhaps most closely aligned with Fox's anti-Obama campaign -- Ailes's orders mean new rules. Ailes's deputy, Fox News programming chief Bill Shine, has sent out orders mandating that producers must get permission before booking Rove or Morris.
Sherman added that "inside" the network, "Morris's Romney boosterism and reality-denying predictions became a punch line."
Don't feel too bad for the Republican strategists -- despite their ignominious failures, Rove will keep his Wall Street Journal column; Morris will keep his column in The Hill; both remain on Fox News' payroll; and come the 2014 midterms, it's likely they'll be out of the doghouse and sharing poor predictions all over again.






Treacherous pair deserve to be exiled.
i saw a report of a programmer and he explained how to cheat on voting machine,,they can send the vote up to ten percent to their candidate in big precint,,more than ten percent,,it would be discovered but they can get away with that ,i beleive it was some cheating on the republicans side because romney did not prepare a speech in case he lost,,he was sure to win,,rove acted like he was sure to win,,was completely surprised,,i think mr obama won bigger than ten percent,,way over,, so the republicans cheating did not go throught,,there is no other way to explain their surprise at loosing,,why were they so sure at the last minutes , they were still so off in their polls,,i have the feeling a very little numbers of peoples voted for romney,,i am white but the peoples i know who did not vote for mr obama are racist,,only because he is black,they went for romney,,me i voted for intelligence,integrity ,,mr obama all the way
It's the leg shots and the up the skirt camera work over there at Fakes News that puts the icing on their 'We Debase, You frame-by-frame' cake. A few nuts like Karl and Dick falling off the cake won't make a difference to them cause they make use of the five second rule when one of these nuts takes a header into the mud. They give them second chances five times a day to spin out why they were right in the first place and that that isn't really mud on their faces, it's just some special Megyn Kelly frosting, don't you know. Fakes News is faker news than The Daily Show. It's 100% pure, Grade A bull@!$%# covered in sparkles and fairy dust. Remember to protect yourself when watching Fakes News. Turning the sound off can sometimes give you a 50% chance to avoid the dummifying effect and covering the crawl and scrawl at the bottom can bring that up to almost 60%. If you are accidentally over-exposed to their over-exposure, you should immediately tune into another news source for immediate relief. It's the holiday season, so you know there the annual "War on Christmas" thing going on over there, be extra cautious when conversing with Fakes News junkies as any inadvertent use of terms like "Happy Holidays" or "Holiday Season" could spark anger, hostility and violent uses of the term "It's Merry F***ing Cristmas!" Stay safe out there and if you do tune in to the News and Leg shows this season, just remember, a pretty face and an occasional panty shot doesn't make the bull@!$%# coming out of their face holes any less slanted and spun.
I don't know much about Fox but these two yahoos seem like political people. Now that all politics are gone for a few years Rove and Morris can hibernate until they're needed again in 2014 to spend more on losers and make more wrong predictions.
Having these guys on now is like a baseball player talking about the Super Bowl...not qualified to talk about other things so wait for their specialty to come back around.
I don't think that "all politics are gone for a few years". It seems to me that these two will lie low for a few months at most. And not knowing anything about a subject does not seem to inhibit them from talking about it.
I will never again watch Faux News....No matter what, and I know hundreds of people who feel as I do....
I watch Fox News as for the same reason I watch the show, Oddities. Obscura antiques fascinate me to no end.
Maybe Morris can suck Rove's toes and they can live happily ever after together.
I highly doubt Mister Jeff Gannon would allow Dick Morris to do that?
Would rather like to see and hear the declaration, "...a Murdock Property...." used far more frequently. Murdock's reach into the USA media is pretty substantial...I think people should be advised about each...and his hand at work would be much clearer.
Fox News commentators are just a bunch of 3rd world people mentality, a crab heads with one gigantic agenda, and that is, pull down anyone that is doing well. Hannity is one big cry baby in front of the tube and his guests...they all cry together.
to pascoguy65......you react to the truth about Fox like a teenager that owns Fox stocks....
Fox entertainment channel is just that, entertainment....and of course a propaganda machine for the GOP.....Dick Morris was all for the Dems until Clinton's bj....he LOVED Clinton...when he thought it wasnt a good thing to be associated with Clinton....the dick took the murdoch money....worst career move dick worst! you went from a nobody to non existent....your loyalty to Bill Clinton was one you should have treasured....when you turned on him quicker than an eye blink i saw you as nothing but a weasel
Fox sux pal.....Canada has a law that dictates it is against the law to lie....Fox found out after hush fines and Canada's throwing Fox out on their ass...
ANYBODY that thinks Fox News is going to change it's ways you are delusional....they are true manipulators of the facts
Roger Ailes, a canny marketer and protector of his network's brand...
Huh? "Canny"? Where was he during the election? Where was he this morning when his 3 little pigs were so outraged about Rachel going to the White House? Does he realize that most people consider Faux News a laugh-fest?
He'd better get a lot more "canny" if he REALLY wants to protect that bunch.
It'll be a great day when Rove and Morris disappear off the face of the earth.
I think that requires the return of Jesus.
Now if they would just get rid of the nauseating Ann Coulter. Dick Morris is a joke. I almost felt sorry for him. Thanks for the updates.
it was Rove being in SHOCK about OHio.
the rest of Fox was in mourning...he was in SHOCK.
yes, I believe the conspiracies about that.
I actually unblocked Fox for the last 2
weeks before the election. There were too many repeats on Comedy
Central and I was looking some entrainment. It is actually as and
sometimes more entertaining than CC. During this time I got up early
one AM and found “Fox and Friends First” or as I like to call it
“LegFest 2012”. How do Trixie and Dixie stay on those stools
with them being tipped forward that much? I am betting on Velcro! I
kept looking for the poles and waiting for the loud rock music to
start. Rumor has it Fox is thinking of selling coffee at 5 bucks a
cup.
Please stop referring to FOX as a news outlet. If it is news, then call it the GOP Channel or the GOP News Outlet on FOX.
FOX news is simply a political Republican media facet that drips crap and sadly many people buy off in the propaganda their reporters are paid to articulate. Some stories is news to make it legit however 80% anti democratic. Ths syndicate need to evolve to a bi-partisan reporting mechanism and will fair better in the future vs. the in-accurate poise it has. I can't watch it and I'm conservative with common sense.
GOP channel - correct!
I have worked in broadcasting since 1965. The way a talk show host can be successful is to create controversy. The host may or may not believe what he is saying. He says it to gain audience. What is more controversial than taxes (Limbaugh)? Fox news feeds the stupid with controversy and they try to hide the fact that we have a black and democrat president. What is more controversial than that? Yes, I voted for Obama.
The people on that show eighther tell lies or muddy the waters so bad , the truth is no longer there with them , they have made a life of lieng .
rove / morris , they will say anything for money .