He is seen in the newsroom as embodying a typical Fox News viewer: an Irish-Catholic family man, son of a New York City police officer. His wife is the author of “Happy Housewives,” an ode to female empowerment through 1950s-style domesticity.
.. Mr. Shine is emphatically a member of the network’s old guard, with a reputation as a corporate survivor and an assiduous flatterer. Some at Fox wondered if he would be kept on after his name, along with those of other executives, surfaced in recent accounts by two women who accused Mr. Ailes of harassment.
.. In news meetings, Mr. Shine is known less for voicing strident political views than for suggesting segments that prove popular with viewers, like stories about the gas tax.
.. When Liz Claman, a Fox Business anchor, complained to Mr. Shine last year about what she viewed as too much politics in the coverage, Mr. Shine dismissed her complaint by noting that her ratings were among the lowest on the channel
.. carrot-and-stick style impressed Mr. Ailes, who often asked Mr. Shine to handle an upset anchor.
.. Ms. Shine’s book, published in 2005 by Judith Regan, then an executive at Fox News’s parent company, was a response to the series “Desperate Housewives.” The book urged women to “shut up, stop whining, and for goodness’ sake, stop nagging your husband.”
.. His wife, on her blog, occasionally delves into politics, writing last month, “I am afraid of our debt, afraid for my children, afraid we have lost the American Dream.” She has also described her concerns about the health effects of vaccinations.
Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News career comes to a swift end amid growing sexual harassment claims
“Over the past 20 years at Fox News, I have been extremely proud to launch and lead one of the most successful news programs in history, which has consistently informed and entertained millions of Americans and significantly contributed to building Fox into the dominant news network in television,” he said. “It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims.
.. The company and O’Reilly paid out $15 million in exchange for his accusers’ silence.
.. But the prospect that his accusers — bound by non-disclosure agreements as a result of their settlements — wouldn’t speak in anything but general terms led the company to believe it could weather the Times story.
.. In fact, it was a sixth accuser — a former guest on O’Reilly’s program named Wendy Walsh — who may have been the key to his unraveling. Unlike the women who received settlements for their complaints, Walsh never sued or settled with O’Reilly, leaving her free to speak in public about her allegations. She did so repeatedly, putting a name, face and voice to the allegations in media accounts.
.. On Tuesday, another woman came forward, anonymously, to complain that she had been harrassed with racial and sexual comment by O’Reilly in 2008.
.. The network, however, continued to roll in record ratings, driven in part by viewer interest in Donald Trump, a longtime friend of Ailes, Murdoch and O’Reilly and a frequent interview guest on Fox programs ..
.. “The O’Reilly Factor” has been the network’s flagship show for nearly 20 years, and in many ways has embodied its conservative-oriented spirit.
.. drew an average of 4 million viewers each night during the first three months of the year, the most ever for a cable-news program.
.. intense media coverage surrounding O’Reilly led to a stampede of advertisers away from O’Reilly’s program, leaving it almost without sponsorship over the past two weeks.
.. The O’Reilly controversy has been casting a shadow over 21st Century’s $14 billion bid to win the British government’s approval to buy Sky TV, the British satellite service. Leaving O’Reilly in place would likely have been a public-relations nightmare
.. The Murdoch family abandoned a 2011 offer for Sky amid another scandal, the phone-hacking conspiracy perpetrated by employees of the Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid in London.
.. Since the Ailes scandal erupted, the company has continued to employ almost all of the senior managers who were in charge when Ailes was allegedly harassing employees, including Bill Shine, currently Fox’s co-president. Shine was accused of enabling Ailes’s retaliatory efforts against an accuser, Fox contributor Julie Roginsky
Fox News Names 2 Insiders to Top Posts
The inquiry has expanded into whether other executives knew of any improper behavior and failed to act on it.
On Friday, Fox also announced that its longtime chief financial officer, Mark Kranz, would retire. His departure was linked to his oversight of the network’s finances during a period when financial settlements were made with women who had complained of harassment
.. Mr. Shine, 53, has been with Fox since shortly after the channel debuted in 1996. He is a favored figure among some veteran anchors, including Mr. Hannity, who first recommended him to Mr. Ailes for a job. A Long Island native, Mr. Shine cut his teeth at the network producing Mr. Hannity’s program and working closely with personalities like Bill O’Reilly.
.. “I could not be happier with the new management team at Fox News Channel,” the anchor Greta Van Susteren, who also worked closely with Mr. Shine, wrote on Twitter on Friday. “Each is well liked and well respected; Thank you Rupert!”
..Still, Mr. Shine was considered one of Mr. Ailes’s most loyal lieutenants. And his name, along with those of other executives, surfaced in recent accounts by two women who came forward to describe difficult experiences at Fox News.
Andrea Tantaros, a daytime host, told The New York Times that when she complained to Mr. Shine about being harassed by Mr. Ailes, he told her, “Don’t fight this.” Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Shine said that Ms. Tantaros never complained to him about Mr. Ailes harassing her.
After Ailes
It’s almost impossible to imagine Fox News without its creator and guardian, Roger Ailes. Almost.
But minutes before Ailes’ statement was released, Twenty-First Century Fox released its own statement — which promised an “internal review” to investigate the allegations.
Outside counsel has reportedly been retained to conduct the review under the direction of the Murdochs. In the memory of many who have observed the corporate culture of Twenty-First Century Fox and other Murdoch companies, the statement was a novelty. “Unprecedented,” one former senior executive told Sherman. “It’s not Rupert’s style to investigate internal issues.”
.. Back in 2010, Matthew Freud, Murdoch’s former son-in-law and a top PR executive in Britain, told The New York Times’ David Carr, “I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’ horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.”
.. Everyone I have ever talked to over there has almost a personal Roger Ailes story, and they’re personally loyal to him. Everything about it, the culture of that network, seems to me to be his personality.
.. James is no socialist, but his politics are firmly to the left of Ailes’. He is friends with Al Gore’s daughter, his wife once worked for the Clinton Foundation, and he donated $2,300 (the maximum possible individual donation) to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and more than $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. A 2003 New York Times article described him as “steadfastly liberal.”
Unlike his father and Ailes, though, James seems uninterested in making political statements with his publications.
.. I have some things I get involved in, but ultimately my job and our job here is about being able to maintain, create and grow a platform that has a diversity of voices,”
.. For Lachlan and James, not mixing business with politics might have been a reason that they, unlike their father, would never have built Fox News in the first place. But the belief inside the building is that Fox News’ rightward slant is an essential component of its success as a business. Ailes’ departure would still leave them with the most successful and most watched cable news channel in the world. Turning it into CNN or SkyNews would likely be a terrible idea. Letting Fox be Fox is the surer course.
If the sons are business first, expect them to keep things much the way they are.
.. While the Murdoch boys may not want to use Fox News as a political weapon, they still appreciate the vast profits it delivers Twenty-First Century Fox. That alone is reason enough to not change the formula too much.
.. Bill Shine oversees the channel’s opinion programming, prime-time programming and Fox Business Network. Prime-time and opinion are the beating heart of Fox News, making Shine a strong internal candidate to succeed Ailes.