Sarah Palin out at Fox
Palin spent just over three years at the News Corp. cable network; she signed a contract with FNC in mid-January of 2010. A source close to Palin told political news site Real Clear Politics that she was recently offered a contract that she declined; others have said that she was not, in fact, offered a new contract.
A statement to The New York Times from the network, attributed to executive vp Bill Shine, said that FNC had "thoroughly enjoyed our association with Governor Palin" and wished her the best.
Things were not always cordial between the network and the outspoken pundit. "I’m sorry Fox cancelled all my scheduled interviews tonight because I sure wanted to take the opportunity on the air to highlight Senator John McCain’s positive contributions to America, to honor him, and to reflect on what a biased media unfairly put him through four years ago tonight," Palin wrote in a Facebook post in August, when the network nixed Palin's appearances in its Republican National Convention coverage.
There were other signs of discontent, too: Palin told syndicated talk show host Mark Levin, not one of her on-air colleagues, that she would not be running for president in 2012; she also posted a vitriolic response to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in March of 2011 against FNC chairman Roger Ailes' expressed wishes, according to New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman (who has reported extensively on the network).
Fox has undergone what Ailes called a "course correction" in recent months, with some of its talent vocally supporting gay marriage, among other concessions to centrist politics. Palin, beloved of Tea Party Republicans, may simply not have fit in with the network's change in direction.
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