Sarah Palin Took a 75% Pay Cut To Get Her Job Back at Fox News

Read the biggest developments from Michael Cohen's testimony.

My how the mighty have fallen. It turns out that Sarah Palin had to give up a whole lot of money to get her job back at Fox News. The Wasilla Washout had to surrender about $750,000/year.

Back in January, Palin turned down a new contract from Fox News because the money wasn’t good enough. Howard Kurtz reported then that,”The new contract offered by Fox, say people familiar with the situation, would have provided only a fraction of the million-dollar-a-year salary. It was then, they say, that Palin turned it down and both sides agreed to call it quits. A friendly announcement was planned for Friday, but a source close to Palin leaked the news in the afternoon to Real Clear Politics, saying the former Alaska governor “decided not to renew the arrangement” and ‘remains focused on broadening her message of common-sense conservatism.'”

It was widely reported that Sarah Palin took a pay cut to come back to Fox News. What wasn’t known was how large of a cut she took. Now we know, and boy did Roger Ailes sock it to Palin.

In a report on TV Guide’s list of the highest paid people on television, TVNewser revealed how big of pay cut Palin had to take in order to get her Fox News gig back, “Other notable names: Megyn Kelly’s new deal is estimated to be worth $6 million a year, twice what Hoda Kotb draws, and more than three times as much as ABC’s Josh Elliott. Ann Curry is still one of the highest-paid reporters at NBC, drawing $5 million a year, while Sarah Palin’s new FNC contract is believed to be in the $250,000 range.”

Sarah Palin came groveling back to Fox News, because she realized that without Fox she was nothing. While she was on her own, Palin had vanished into the oblivion of her Facebook page. Even more important than the lack of media attention that she no longer received, her PAC slush fund that she has used to maintain her lifestyle dried up. Fox News is the hub of conservative fundraising, and Sarah Palin needed to get the cash flowing back into her PAC, so she needed Fox News a whole lot more than Fox needed her.

The mainstream media still likes to pretend that Palin is a star and a potential presidential candidate, but the reality is that she is a political has been that is living off of the charity of her few remaining blind supporters.

There aren’t too many people in the country who have had to take a 75% pay cut in the past year, but for my money Sarah Palin is still overpaid by 25%.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association