Murdoch vows that Fox News without Ailes will still be Fox
NEW YORK — Fox News Channel is minus founding leader Roger Ailes but not its direction, Rupert Murdoch vowed.
“I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice. Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country,” Murdoch said in a statement Thursday after Ailes, 76, resigned under pressure as chief executive while fighting a workplace misconduct suit.
The vacuum left by his departure after two decades will be filled for now by Murdoch, 85, the executive chairman of network parent 21st Century Fox. He will run Fox News and its sister Fox Business Network, which Ailes had also led, until a successor is found.
Former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit alleges she was forced out by Ailes after she spurned his sexual advances. Ailes has denied the claims.
“We hope that all businesses now understand that women will no longer tolerate sexual harassment and reputable companies will no longer shield those who abuse women,” Carlson’s attorneys, Nancy Erika Smith and Martin Hyman, said in a statement.
Within two weeks of the court filing, Carlson’s lawyers also said more than 20 women had contacted the firm with stories of alleged harassment by Ailes either against themselves or someone they knew.
At least $40 million
Murdoch and 21st Century Fox did not address the widening scandal in the statement but lauded Ailes for his contributions. Ailes is expected to get a payment of at least $40 million.
Ailes will have no formal role in the company, but is expected to serve as an informal adviser to Murdoch, said a person familiar with the agreement who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is a personnel matter. The deal is also said to have a standard no-compete clause.
Fox is heading into a general election campaign in its customary spot at the top of the ratings, but without the man who sets its editorial tone every day. The announcement came on the day Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination for president.
Ailes groomed no obvious successors, and has been so identified with the brand that many have a hard time envisioning the network without him. Will the person who follows him lack Ailes’ political instincts, or tone down aggressive opinion? That could make Fox more broadly palatable, but also risks alienating the audience that has made Fox such a success.
Murdoch said Fox managers Bill Shine, Jay Wallace and Mark Kranz will assist in day-to-day management of the network. The Murdoch sons, James and Lachlan, may also seek to make a statement by reaching outside the current Fox News culture.
The blustery Ailes built a network that both transformed the news business and changed the political conversation. Fox provided a television home to conservatives who had felt left out of the media, and played a part in advancing a rough-and-tumble style of politics that left many concerned that it was impossible to get things done in government.
Before the sexual harassment claims, Fox’s sheer success had insulated Ailes despite some previous scrapes with the Murdoch sons over who he would report to. Fox News Channel is the parent company’s single most important property, said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser, with some estimates that it accounted for nearly a quarter of the company’s profits.
Ailes was a prominent Republican media consultant who later ran CNBC before Murdoch asked him to create a cable news network to compete with CNN at the same time MSNBC was starting. Ailes’ slogans, “fair and balanced” and “we report, you decide,” appealed to an audience that believed mainstream outlets didn’t live up to those promises.
“He was ahead of his time in recognizing that dividing, not uniting, an audience would be the key to commercial success in the 21stcentury cable news business,” said Matt Sienkiewicz, communications professor at Boston College.
Many doubters
Critics scoffed at Ailes’ promise that he’d lift Fox to first place. By 2002, he did.
He was also a showman. Fox had flashier graphics, brighter colors and a vitality its rivals lacked. The daytime show “Outnumbered” is a classic Ailes concept: four women in dresses, their legs prominently displayed, debating issues with a single male panelist.
While ratings are soaring in an election year, a newly aggressive CNN is making inroads among younger viewers that advertisers seek. Fox faces the challenge of trying to inject youth into an audience that is among the oldest in television.