Jeb Bush's Cousin Is A Fox Business Executive

[KamaAina]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/03/jeb-bushs-cousin-is-a-fox-business-executive/202089

John Ellis, first cousin of potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, is an executive at Fox Business Network, Politico reported. Ellis made headlines for his controversial role heading Fox News' decision desk during the 2000 election, when the network was the first to call Florida for another Ellis cousin, George W. Bush. Ellis also once recused himself from political commentary due to his "loyalty" to George Bush.

Even with possible presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson now off the Fox payrolls, the Fox empire has ongoing potential ethical conflicts surrounding its 2016 presidential coverage.

In The Loudest Voice In The Room, Gabriel Sherman's 2014 biography of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, Sherman reports that Ellis was hired in 2013 as a vice president of programming for Fox Business. Politico noted Ellis' role in a February 3 post that included a Fox spokesperson's statement that Ellis "has no involvement with political news, of any kind, for either FOX Business or FOX News Channel." (According to the spokesperson, Ellis' title is "vice president of program development.&quot

Ellis' leading position at a major media company while his cousin explores a presidential run is troubling given how his family's political ambitions have previously overlapped with his media work. Ellis was hired as a consultant by Fox News to run its 2000 election night decision desk, interpreting internal exit poll data available to media outlets and helping the network make calls on which presidential candidate had won each state. That night, Fox News became the first to call Florida for George W. Bush -- as the Los Angeles Times explained, "the other networks rushed to follow over the next four minutes."

Fair and balanced? We report. You decide.

[olddots]

1. K&R

everyone here should know this .

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. I believe that's the same dickhead who first called Jr the winner in FL 2000. nt

[KamaAina]

4. That is indeed the same dickhead.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. D'ooooohhhh!

[Autumn]

3. 2000 election ring a bell? Yep and we have known this for a long time.

It get's worse and worse. We don't stand a chance.

[TheNutcracker]

5. Well remember when cousin on FOX called the race for GW Bush in 2000 early??????????

[KamaAina]

7. That was him.

[Enrique]

6. Jeb's name is John Ellis Bush

the upper upper class are so cute with their naming conventions.

[Octafish]

8. His family sees to it that Rupert Murdoch pays Roger Ailes.

Murdoch, Scaife and CIA Propaganda

Special Report: The rapid expansion of America’s right-wing media began in the 1980s as the Reagan administration coordinated foreign policy initiatives with conservative media executives, including Rupert Murdoch, and then cleared away regulatory hurdles.

By Robert Parry

EXCERPT...

Helping Murdoch

Murdoch, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1985 to meet a regulatory requirement that U.S. TV stations must be owned by Americans, benefited from his close ties to both U.S. and British officialdom.

On Monday, the UK’s Independent reported that Ed Richards, the retiring head of the British media regulatory agency Ofcom, accused British government representatives of showing favoritism to Murdoch’s companies.

Richards said he was “surprised” by the informality, closeness and frequency of contact between executives and ministers during the failed bid by Murdoch’s News Corp. for the satellite network BSkyB in 2011. The deal was abandoned when it was discovered that journalists at Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and others.

“What surprised everyone about it – not just me – was quite how close it was and the informality of it,” Richards said, confirming what had been widely reported regarding Murdoch’s access to powerful British politicians dating back at least to the reign of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The Reagan documents suggest that Murdoch built similarly close ties to leading U.S. politicians in the same era.

In 1983, Murdoch’s rising media empire was still based in Australia with only a few U.S. properties, such as the Star tabloid and the New York Post. But he was eyeing expansion into the U.S. media market. In 1984, he bought a stake in 20th Century Fox and then six Metromedia television stations, which would form the nucleus of Fox Broadcasting Company, which was founded on Oct. 9, 1986.

At the time, Murdoch and other media moguls were lobbying for a relaxation of regulations from the Federal Communications Commission, a goal that Reagan shared. Under FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, the Reagan administration undertook a number of steps favorable to Murdoch’s interests, including increasing the number of TV stations that any single entity could own from seven in 1981 to 12 in 1985.

In 1987, the “Fairness Doctrine,” which required political balance in broadcasting, was eliminated, which enabled Murdoch to pioneer a more aggressive conservatism on his TV network. In the mid-1990s, Murdoch expanded his political reach by founding the neoconservative Weekly Standard in 1995 and Fox News on cable in 1996. At Fox News, Murdoch has hired scores of prominent politicians, mostly Republicans, putting them on his payroll as commentators.

CONTINUED...

https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/31/murdoch-scaife-and-cia-propaganda/

[highmindedhavi]

9. Both parties

ABC president Ben Sherwood and Special Assistant to Barack Obama, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall are brother and sister

FormerDeputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Tom Nides is married to CNN executive Virginia Moseley

Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is married to ABC News contributor Claire Shipman

[KamaAina]

10. NBC's Andrea Mitchell is married to former Fed chair Alan Greenspan (R)

and so on.

But none of the people involved are planning a Presidential campaign.

[kairos12]

12. I remember this SOB well from the 2000 election.