Sarah Palin and Fox News have split, and according to Palin allies, she was the dumper, not the dumpee. "It's my understanding that Gov. Palin was offered a contract by FOX, and she decided not to renew the arrangement," a "source close to Palin" told Real Clear Politics' Scott Conroy. (Fox confirms they've "parted ways" to The New York Times' Brian Stelter.) But given the increasingly public spats between Palin and the network, you have to wonder if that's some post-breakup spin.

The three-year relationship had been rocky for at least a year and a half. Palin fought with fellow Fox contributor Karl Rove (whose contract has been renewed) when she was waffling over whether to run for president in late summer 2011. "I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings," Fox chief Roger Ailes said that October. When Palin decided not to run, she gave the exclusive to radio host Mark Levin, not Fox. And during the Republican National Convention, she protested on Facebook that Fox had cancelled all her interviews. Fox was then negotiating her contract then, and had been disappointed with her ratings, New York's Gabriel Sherman reported. "According to sources, the relationship at times has gotten so bad that much communication has been conducted via Palin’s husband Todd," Sherman wrote.

Well, Palin will always have something to remember Fox by: that studio it built for her in her Alaska home.

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Elspeth Reeve