Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is parting ways with Fox News. Palin had made regular appearances on the conservative network since January 2010, when she reportedly signed a $1 million yearly contract to provide political commentary, according to CBS News.
The parting appeared to be amicable. As CBS News reported, Fox executive Bill Shine said Friday, "We have thouroughly enjoyed our association with her," and, "We wish her the best in her future endeavors."
Palin's relationship with Fox had its rocky points over the past three years. In 2011, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes ruffled some feathers with his admission in a story by the Associated Press that "I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings."
And "when Palin announced she would not be a candidate in 2012, she said it on a conservative radio show," reports CBS News, "which didn't sit well with the company paying her to be a contributor." Palin also sometimes complained publicly about her treatment from Fox News, taking to Facebook to vent her frustration that Fox had canceled some of her appeances during the GOP national convention.
Jack Mirkinson, Media Editor at The Huffington Post, said that Palin's leaving Fox is hardly surprising, "but it does highlight, as much as anything, Palin's diminished relevance. Reports about the increasingly icy relationship between Palin and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes have been circulating for years."
"Meanwhile," Mirkinson added, "her public profile has waned as the years since her bid for the vice presidency grind on."