Fox News chief exits in wake of scandal
Co-president Bill Shine’s departure may quiet criticism
@mikesnider USA TODAY
Fox News says network copresident Bill Shine has resigned and Suzanne Scott, the network’s top female executive, is among two execs promoted — part of a management overhaul following allegations of sexual and racial harassment involving some of the conservative news network’s most well-known personalities and senior staff.
Shine took over as co-president along with Jack Abernethy in August 2016, a month after Roger Ailes stepped down as CEO in the wake of accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination.
The departure of Shine, who had been at Fox News since its start, comes less than two weeks after the dismissal of popular host Bill O’Reilly after an internal investigation into charges of sexual harassment against O’Reilly.
Shine had been mentioned in several lawsuits filed against Fox News for allowing a workplace culture in which sexual harassment and racial discrimination developed.
The move may help quiet criticism that Fox was doing too little to clean up its ranks after Ailes’ departure, despite a pledge from Lachlan and James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s sons who run 21st Century Fox, to “maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect.”
But it also risks alienating some of its star performers. Fox News host Sean Hannity took to Twitter last week in support of Shine after reports began to hint of his potential ouster. “Somebody HIGH UP AND INSIDE FNC is trying to get an innocent person fired,” he tweeted.
Fox is promoting two execs as Fox News presidents. Scott, who joined Fox News in 1996 and had been executive VP, is now president of programming for Fox News Channel. Jay Wallace, who also joined in 1996 and was formerly the executive VP of news, is now president of news for Fox News Channel.