Why Bill Kristol left Fox News

Politico reports:

Bill Kristol, the editor and publisher of The Weekly Standard, ended a decade-long run as Fox News contributor this summer two years after he and Roger Ailes got into a disagreement that had a cooling effect on their relationship, sources with knowledge of their relationship told POLITICO.

In 2011, the Fox News chief asked Kristol to take a negative stance toward a certain individual, effectively helping Ailes in his effort to give that person a bad reputation, the sources said. Kristol refused to get involved in Ailes' personal arguments and, as a result, there was a "coolness" between the two going forward. Though the relationship remained cordial, Ailes felt he could no longer trust Kristol to be a team player.

Kristol's departure, which he announced in August, was due to a number of factors: Kristol was less central to Fox News programming during the 2012 election than he had been in previous cycles. He was also appearing less frequently on Fox News Sunday, due in part to the show's desire to have more variety on its panel. The network's plans to hire columnist George Will, another conservative columnist, may have played a role.

But the disagreement, while not directly responsible for the break, had a notable effect on the relationship between the two men, and may have been a factor.