During her three years as a paid contributor at Fox “News,” former half term Governor Sarah Palin made $15.85 for every word she spoke, according to a study conducted by Smart Politics:

A Smart Politics review of the more than 150 FOX broadcasts in which Sarah Palin appeared as a paid commentator from 2010 through 2012 finds that she spoke 189,221 words on air during this span, for an average pay rate of $15.85 per word.

Palin appeared on the network in studio, by satellite, by telephone, or in a pre-taped interview an average of once every 7.2 days during this three-year period, with the vast majority of those coming on two particular programs.

Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren both interviewed Palin 55 times, combining for nearly three-quarters of her appearances on the network over the last 36 months. (Note: the latter total includes interviews by Griff Jenkins and guest host Martha McCallum on Van Susteren’s On the Record program).

Though the number of appearances were equal, Palin spent a bit more time in the 9 pm EST slot, delivering 72,986 words on Hannity compared to 67,987 words while on On The Record with Van Susteren.

Overall, 74.4 percent of the words Palin delivered during her political analysis occurred on these two programs.

Palin generally avoided the more hard-edged interviewers on the network with less than 20 appearances before Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday (13,970 words) and Bill O’Reilly’s O’Reilly Factor (10,169) combined.

“Hard edged interviewers” on Fox? Uh…okay.

Anyway, you make the call - are Fox “News” and their viewers better off for this investment having been made? I say…absolutely! Roger Ailes and company know that Fox viewers demand vacuous analyses that confirms their own idiotic bias. And who better to provide vacuous analyses than Gov. Blood Libel herself?