Some of former Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s strongest supporters would call any other former Democratic Congressman who decided to be a Fox News contributor a sellout — some on the Democratic left have urged Democratic leaders not to appear on Fox at all. But how much do you want to bet Kucinich will be given a pass on this one: his next gig is as a paid contributor on Fox News.
And of course, how DARE anyone raise their eyebrows (or questions):
Dennis Kucinich’s unlikely next act will be as a paid Fox News contributor, but he says it’s “almost silly” to think that he’ll be a kind of token.
“I’m way past that in my life and career,” Kucinich said in a phone interview with BuzzFeed on Wednesday. “That’s almost silly.”
The former Ohio congressman, who lost his seat after redistricting to fellow Democrat Marcy Kaptur, said that Fox invited him to New York last week to discuss the deal.
“That’s when they made the offer and I accepted,” he said.
He said that he’ll appear on shows “across the Fox News Channel”; “There’s a chance tomorrow, for example that I might end up being on O’Reilly. On another day I might end up being on Cavuto or on Fox Business.”
In July, Kucinich announced that he was launching a PAC to support like-minded candidates after his exit from Congress. He said on Wednesday that “I’ll continue to do that, but that’s a long range plan and that’s not going to in any way interfere with what I’m doing here.”
Kucinich has been a semi-regular guest on Fox throughout much of his time in Congress, he pointed out: “I think that the perspective that I offer is one that they obviously have valued in the past because of the number of invitations that I’ve received. ”
“I would say that over the years I’ve developed a relationship with people on every show they have,” he said.
Fox News does have some Democrats who are quite vocal, to be sure.
Kucinich will become one of the small number of liberal Fox contributors, which includes Evan Bayh and Bob Beckel. In the past, some of Kucinich’s views have hewed more closely to Fox lines, like abortion; he held out longer than many other anti-abortion Democrats in Congress, and announced that he had become pro-choice in 2003.
But none of that matters. All of what Kucinich said can be true.
The point is, many of Kucinich’s supporters would call anyone else a sellout for going over to Fox.
Take your bets now for how long it’ll be before he’s totally forgiven (passionately declared principles in politics have short shelf lives…).
Maybe we’ll hear the worn phrase: “Hey, I’ll bring about changes from the inside…”
On the other hand, it shows again Fox News’ Roger Ailes genius in recruiting people with varying views to offer more perspectives/provide a figleaf for the reality of what Fox News is (pick the one that most fits your bias…).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.