Fox News co-president Bill Shine resigns amid criticism of his handling of sexual harassment claims

May 1, 2017 12:16 PM PT

Los Angeles Times

New York —

Bill Shine, the embattled co-president of Fox News who faced mounting criticism over his handling of sexual harassment claims against former chief executive Roger Ailes and recently fired host Bill O’Reilly, is stepping down, it was announced Monday.

With Shine out, Fox News is elevating Suzanne Scott, who will become president of programming at the network. She had been executive vice president for programming. Another executive vice president, Jay Wallace, has been promoted to president of news at the channel.

Both Scott and Wallace are longtime executives from within the organization but neither has been tainted by the sexual harassment issues that have plagued the company over nine months.

Shine played a played a key role in building Fox News Channel into a cable juggernaut, having joined the 21st Century Fox unit when it first launched in 1996. Shine was known for his ability to identify the hot button issues that appeal to the conservative viewers who flock to the network.

But Shine faced growing pressure to step down following reports that he stood by as women were sexually harassed by former Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes and prime time star Bill O’Reilly, who was fired from the network on April 18. Ailes has denied all allegations made against him. O’Reilly has denied the merits of the claims leveled at him, even though $13 million was paid in settlement claims to women who complained about his behavior.

Shine has never been accused of sexual harassment by any female employee at Fox News. But he is named in several of the harassment lawsuits filed against the network, alleging that he failed to act on complaints about Ailes.

Shine’s future was thrown into question last week when Fox News prime-time star Sean Hannity took to Twitter to publicly voice his support for the executive. The tweets were in response to a New York magazine report suggesting that Shine had sought public support from the Murdoch family, the controlling shareholders of Fox News parent 21st Century Fox.

“Somebody HIGH UP AND INSIDE FNC is trying to get an innocent person fired,” Hannity said. He also tweeted: “I pray this is NOT true because if it is, that’s the total end of the FNC as we know it. Done.”

Hannity is a close friend of Shine, who was a producer of the host’s program before he climbed up the executive ranks.