Friday, November 12, 2004

Thousands of Political Analysts to join ranks of unemployed

Washington, DC - After the dust from the highly contentious 2004 presidential election has settled, thousands of political analysts are projected to lose their jobs, say sources at the major networks.

"They just won't be needed anymore, at least not in these numbers, at least until the next congressional elections," says an executive for FOX News. "In this election season, if you resume even had anything related to politics in your 'hobbies' section, you got a job as an analyst. The level of political analysis this country currently has, however, cannot be sustained without an impending election."

Sources at ABC and CBS news agencies have revealed similar situations at their networks.

The networks have not publicly stated their intentions for all of their political analysts, but sources state that all efforts have been made to retain the analysts where possible.

At FOX, for example, some of the top political analysts will be guest-hosts on the news network's shows, or may be called in to provide analysis on other issues, such as court trials of celebrities or they may be embedded with troops battling the War on Terror.

At CBS, an unnamed assistant for the 60 Minutes show had this to say: "Certainly we want to keep talent, but we're faced with a supply glut of political analysts. Either wages have to go down, or those less skilled will have to be eliminated."

Sources familiar with News Corp have suggested that the FOX News division may be working with the 21st Century Fox and the Fox television network divisions on a movie about political analysis in the 2004 election, as well as a possible reality TV series featuring the soon-to-be unemployed analysts.