The departure of Ailes comes less than three weeks after former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit alleging that Ailes retaliated against her and sabotaged her career because she complained about a hostile work environment at the network and rebuffed his advances.
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Fox News CEO and Chairman Roger Ailes and his wife, Elizabeth Tilson, leave the News Corp. building in NY on Tuesday. The former chairman and CEO will walk away with a healthy severance package following his resignation on Thursday.
Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and Chairman of Fox Television Stations, has resigned from his role with immediate effect, according to a statement from 21st Century Fox, the parent of the news network.
“I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice”, Murdoch said. Progressive media watchdog Media Matters released a statement from founder David Brock that read, “Media Matters has successfully branded Fox News as a network not to be trusted”.
Ailes continued consulting on presidential campaigns, serving as media consultant for three successful Republicans: Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Fox News is now regularly among the most-watched networks in all of cable and dominates the cable news category. Murdoch said current Fox managers Bill Shine, Jay Wallace and Mark Kranz will help him run the company, which also includes the Fox Business Network, on a day-to-day basis.
Fox News is one of the jewels of 21st Century Fox and contributes nearly 20% of the parent’s EBITDA.
However, the fact that Murdoch is temporarily in charge is an indication that there was no succession plan in place at Fox News despite Ailes’ age, 76, and ill health in recent years. To lead a flourishing news channel, and to build Fox Business, Roger has defied the odds.
Despite his fall from grace, Ailes won’t leave empty-handed. Fox News has a relatively old audience – most of its prime-time viewers are over 65. While the elder Murdoch has long backed Ailes and his agenda-driven news, his sons have had a cooler relationship with the brash executive. “He invented this winning formula and all you have to do is not mess with it too much and it will continue to mint money for you”.
But critics said Mr Ailes and Fox were blatantly partisan.
Several Fox employees jumped to Ailes’s defense – but notably not Megyn Kelly, one of Fox’s top personalities.
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“Gretchen’s legal team started hearing (mainly through calls and emails) from people with their own stories of harassment nearly immediately the day that the lawsuit was filed and first reported on”, Garger said. Among the other offences set out by the suit Ailes was accused of “ogling Carlson in his office and asking her to turn around so he could view her posterior”. In rapid succession, it was reported that Kelly was among other women who had told investigators about harassment again denied by Ailes and that corporate heads Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, determined that Ailes had to go.
