Even former Fox News chief doesn't want Scaramucci's old White House job

It turns out this chaotic White House can’t even get Fox News’s former co-president, Bill Shine, to come aboard. The New York Post reports that Shine has turned down the communications director job left vacant by Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted just 10 days  before famously imploding in full public view. Before his sudden departure, Scaramucci managed to drive White House spokesman Sean Spicer out of his job and helped get Reince Priebus sacked as Trump’s chief of staff.

“Everybody they want isn’t interested,” an insider told the Post.

Looking to the sycophantic Fox News, which practically serves as the in-house communications channel for all pro-Trump propaganda these days, certainly makes sense. Not only did the channel help launch Trump’s political career by giving him a constant platform to push his birther allegations under President Barack Obama, but Fox News today functions as his most important media ally and works diligently to obediently spin his messaging.

The White House has been scrambling to find a replacement to the crucial post. The Shine snub comes after the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday that White House officials have reached out to a bevy potential replacements, but no one is willing to take a positions that seems doomed for failure, given Trump’s obsession with communications and his short fuse.

So maybe that high-level dysfunction is why Shine passed on the job.

The fact that Fox News’s former boss, and a longtime Roger Ailes ally, would even be considered for a top White House post is telling and rather disturbing. After a two-decade run at Rupert Murdoch’s channel, the scandal-plagued Shine was forced out of his job in May after his name kept popping up in sexual harassment claims, with victims claiming Shine routinely worked to cover-up the rampant culture of harassment at the company.