Given the headlines that dominated this week, you might think that right now is a great time to be one of Fox News's principal culture warriors: The long-awaited Muslim ban finally passed legal muster, a soon-to-be-vacant Supreme Court seat imperils 45 years of Roe v. Wade, and an administration official's polite ouster from a small restaurant continues to provide as much fodder as the Sean Hannitys and Tucker Carlsons of the world need to reframe every Trumpian atrocity as an in-kind response to vicious attacks perpetrated by the intolerant left.

According to a new report from Politico, however, some network executives appear to harbor concerns about the extent to which on-air personalities are able to, for example, mock 10-year-olds with Down syndrome and claim that detained kids at the border are actually "child actors." At a recent meeting with her top producers, per Politico, CEO Suzanne Scott reminded them that even at Fox News, there are limits to how much bullshit a host can tolerate.

Scott told the producers that they would be held accountable for anything said on their air, and that it was their job to head off any inappropriate remarks, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting... Scott read from a prepared script, explaining that she wanted to make sure she communicated her message precisely.

Recent on-air statements by prime-time host Laura Ingraham, as well as guest commentators, about the child separation crisis at the U.S.-Mexican border were viewed as so problematic, according to one of the people with knowledge of the meeting, that Scott told the group that, going forward, material about children should be scripted in advance and reviewed before airing.

After decades of acting as an uncritical mouthpiece for conservative politicians and pouring gasoline on every insane conspiracy theory pulled from the darkest corners of Reddit, the higher-ups' abrupt development of a keen sense of self-awareness feels strange. As the article notes, however, Fox News has been hit hard by advertiser boycotts in response to its talent's decisions to, at various junctures, lie about Seth Rich, belittle a teenager for not getting into his college of choice, and be vile serial sexual harassers. What was a network confined mostly to the right-wing media echo chamber has become mainstream for all the worst reasons. Eventually, being the preferred channel of cruel trolls is an untenable state of affairs for a business, no matter how much the core audience loves it or how often the president promotes his favorite segments.

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