Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via .
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Fox News has seen a cascade of departures from its network over the past few years, many of which were triggered by sexual-harassment allegations.
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Former CEO and Chairman Roger Ailes and longtime host Bill O’Reilly are among the most notable to have been forced out of the organization after being accused of sexual harassment.
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Recent departures include former anchor Ed Henry, who is currently being sued for sexual misconduct.
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President Trump has been repeatedly eschewing nostalgia for Ailes, and has even been interviewed for a new documentary on Ailes starring John Voight, yet another production about Fox News, joining the likes of the 2019 movie “Bombshell” and the Showtime series “The Loudest Voice.”
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Fox News undoubtedly holds the position of the most consequential media organization when it comes to the Trump White House.
President Trump continues to live tweet the network’s shows since taking office, and has recently been waxing about the good old days under the late CEO Roger Ailes.
Trump is reportedly going to be featured as an interview subject in a new documentary on Ailes starring John Voight, marking the latest in a series of Fox-themed productions.
The 2019 movie “Bombshell” and Showtime series “The Loudest Voice” both focused on the reckoning over rampant sexual misconduct that hit the network in 2016 and 2017, leading to a slew of departures.
Beyond the men who were either fired or forced out of the company for their behavior, a harder to quantify number of women have seen their careers cut short by the company’s culture of workplace harassment.
Here are seven of the most notable departures from Fox over the past four years:
Roger Ailes was fired in 2016 after being accused of sexual harassment by several women, including Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson.
Stephen Lovekin/.
Roger Ailes, who served at the helm of Fox News from its debut in 1996, is credited as building the channel into the media empire it is today.
He resigned in July 2016 after former host Gretchen Carlson accused the then-CEO and chairman of sexual harassment, along with several other women, including anchor Megyn Kelly.
Ailes denied the charges, some of which dated back to at least the early 1990s.
A year after his departure, Ailes died after he fell and hit his head in his Palm Beach, Florida, home, at age 77.
Gretchen Carlson also left the network in 2016, alleging that she’d been fired after refusing to sleep with Ailes.
Gary Gershoff/.
Journalist Gretchen Carlson joined Fox News in 2005 as a co-host for its morning show “Fox & Friends” and in 2013 left the program to start her own called “The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson.” Her contract expired on June 23, 2016, but she alleged in a lawsuit filed nearly two weeks later that she was fired in retaliation for her refusal to sleep with former chairman Roger Ailes.
The suit eventually led to his resignation. Carlson reportedly received $20 million in a settlement reached with 21st Century Fox and had signed a non-disclosure agreement, which she asked to be let out of in 2019. She published a book a year later on how to stop sexual harassment in the workplace.
Six months after Carlson’s departure, Megyn Kelly left Fox for NBC.
Phillip Faraone/. for Fortune
Former talk show host Megyn Kelly contributed to several Fox News segments and later anchored her own show during her 13-year tenure at the network. She garnered national attention for her sharp questioning of then-candidate Donald Trump during a 2015 GOP presidential debate. Trump reacted by repeatedly attacking Kelly, at one point telling CNN, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
Fox staged a detente by having Kelly host the first-of-its-kind one-hour primetime special that aired in May 2016, in which she interviewed Trump.
The following January Kelly left the network and was scooped up by NBC News. She became the host of a new daytime program called “Megyn Kelly Today.”
In an episode on Oct. 23, 2018, Kelly drew immense criticism for her on-air remarks about blackface, which later resulted in the show’s cancelation.
Kelly left NBC in January 2019 — with a check for $69 million.
Bill O’Reilly was eventually exposed for serially harassing women in 2017.
Flickr/justinhoch
Fox News cut ties with longtime host Bill O’Reilly in April 2017 after a New York Times’ investigation found that he paid $13 million to settle sexual-harassment claims coming from five women.
The conservative commentator had been on vacation when the network announced his firing. O’Reilly’s nightly show aired for more than two decades and became one of the highest-rated in cable news television. His viewership even soared during the scandal.
His 8 p.m. slot was replaced by Tucker Carlson. O’Reilly launched his own digital news site the same year.
Bill Shine managed to find a second act in the White House after he too was forced out amid multiple lawsuits involving accusations he was involved in covering up harassment claims.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via .
One of the most consequential senior executives at Fox under Ailes, Bill Shine started out as a producer for Sean Hannity before becoming a senior primetime producer in 1999 and later senior VP of programming by 2004.
Shine often defended the most controversial comments by the network’s guests and hosts.
Following Ailes’ ouster in 2016, Shine was named by Rupert Murdoch to serve as the co-president of Fox News with Jack Abernathy.
However, Shine’s tenure at the helm was shortlived.
Despite Hannity defending Shine amid allegations of covering up sexual harassment within the company, the co-president was forced out in May 2017.
While Shine was never personally accused of any wrongdoing, his time at senior levels of the company while the alleged misconduct of colleagues was taking place made his position precarious as lawsuits mounted.
Shine went on to serve in the White House for just over eight months during 2018 and 2019 as deputy chief of staff for communications and communications director. He left the White House to serve as an adviser for Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Eric Bolling was forced out in 2017 for allegedly sending lewd texts and photos to female colleagues.
Noam Galai/.
Eric Bolling had myriad on-air roles at Fox News and the Fox Business Network. He was pushed out in 2017 amid his own sexual harassment scandal involving allegations of sending unsolicited lewd photos and texts to three women who worked at the network.
An ardent Trump supporter, Bolling now has his own show on TheBlaze and hosts “America This Week,” a Sunday morning talk show for the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Ed Henry became the latest Fox News man to lose his job over sexual misconduct allegations in 2020.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via .
A staple of the network’s White House and morning news coverage, Ed Henry is the latest Fox News personality to leave the network amid sexual misconduct allegations. The network announced his abrupt firing on July 1.
A former producer accused Henry of raping her and asking her to be his “sex slave” in a lawsuit filed against the network earlier this month.
Former producer Jennifer Eckhart alleged that Henry “psychologically manipulated and coerced” her into a sexual relationship beginning in 2014 when she was 24 years old. The lawsuit also alleges he violently raped her in 2017.
“Mr. Henry not only leveraged this imbalance of power for control over his victim, Ms. Eckhart, but asked her to be his ‘sex slave’ and his ‘little w—-,’ and threatened punishment and retaliation if Ms. Eckhart did not comply with his sexual demands,” the suit alleges.
In the same complaint, former Fox guest Cathy Areu alleged she was sexually harassed by Henry, along with Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Howard Kurtz, and Gianno Caldwell — all prominent Fox hosts.
Areu alleged that Henry sent her “a slew of wildly inappropriate sexual images and messages.”
A Fox spokesperson rejected all of Areu’s allegations against Fox and every host besides Henry, calling them “false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.”
Henry has denied the allegations against him.
Eliza Relman contributed reporting to this story.
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