{"id":33001,"date":"2018-07-06T13:12:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T20:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=33001"},"modified":"2018-07-06T13:12:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T20:12:55","slug":"republicans-on-parade-7-6-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/06\/republicans-on-parade-7-6-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans on Parade – 7\/6\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Here is the one hundred twenty-fifth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today\u2019s honoree is former Republican Faux Noise<\/em> perversion and harassment enabler Bill Shine.  He is so honored for the Republican way he is becoming Trump’s Director of Communications,  and Porn Star, Playmate, and Russian Hooker relations.  In addition he will handle witness intimidation and Pee Pee Tape suppression.<\/font><\/p>\n

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[I]n the interminable 17 months that Donald Trump has been president, the administration has struggled mightily to find and keep a communications director. Sean Spicer held the job for about 45 days before he was replaced by Mike Dubke who resigned after just three months. Spicer was then brought in as acting director, only to quit in protest when Anthony Scaramucciwas hired. The Mooch lasted a grand total of 10 days, until an on-the-record obscenity-fueled rant to a New Yorker reporter went viral and he was canned. His successor, Hope Hicks, stuck it out the longest\u2014225 days\u2014until she quit and hightailed it back to Connecticut. Since March 29, 2018, the role has been vacant, considering the fact that it\u2019s a thankless job in which one will ultimately be blamed by the president for being unable to curtail stories about what a train wreck the administration is. But praise the gods of right-wing cable news, Trump has finally found someone willing to run his press shop.<\/p>\n

ABC News reports<\/a> that Bill Shine, a former Fox News co-president, has been offered, and has accepted, the role of deputy chief of staff for communications, with a formal announcement from the White House expected by the end of the week. In tapping Shine, Trump is effectively solidifying the idea that Fox News is state-run TV\u2014a political sandbox where Trump floats his dumbest ideas in the morning, tweeting back and forth with the hosts of Fox & Friends, and then gets to hear his moronic ramblings echoed back to him at night as received wisdom. The ex-executive is still tight with primetime star Sean Hannity, who\u2019s well known to be the president\u2019s most trusted unofficial adviser, and favorite pre-bedtime phone call<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s already outsourced a lot of his communications stuff to Fox News,\u201d a Republican close to the White House told<\/a> Politico of Trump. \u201cHe has a tremendously close relationship with Hannity, so he\u2019s going to put Hannity\u2019s guy in there.\u201d…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Vanity Fair<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

When Shine was at Faux Noise<\/em>, the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, his main job was to enable the harassment of female employees by executive and on-air perverts.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Shine\u2019s name runs through all the threads of the sexual harassment saga at Fox. He\u2019s been named in multiple lawsuits by women who say he was involved in covering up or otherwise aiding in their abuse, particularly by Ailes.<\/p>\n

In a case settled in December (the dollar figure is under wraps), Shine was accused of retaliating<\/a> against a woman who declined to have a sexual relationship with Ailes. In another lawsuit, a woman who complained to Shine about Ailes\u2019 behavior said he told her that he was \u201ca very powerful man\u201d<\/a> and that she \u201cneeded to let this one go.\u201d A third woman, who said she was psychologically tortured by Ailes for 20 years, was, at one point sent to live in a hotel for six weeks where senior leaders at Fox could \u201cmonitor\u201d her. She claims that Shine reviewed all of her emails<\/a>, which he denies.<\/p>\n

All of this behavior was meant to keep the powerhouses, the \u201ctalent,\u201d at Fox in place, and to keep Fox making money \u2014 at nearly any moral cost. Business is business. O\u2019Reilly\u2019s contract was even extended after they found out he\u2019d personally paid a woman $32 million to keep quiet about accusations that they, themselves, knew about. Their reason, The New York Times reported<\/a>: \u201che was the biggest star<\/a> in cable TV.\u201d…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Vox<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

Here’s Joy Reid’s<\/a> take on it, as she filled-in for Rachel Maddow.<\/font><\/p>\n