Ailes out as Fox News head

NEW YORK -- Roger Ailes is out as chief executive at Fox News Channel, his career at the network he built from scratch and ran with an iron hand for nearly 20 years following allegations he forced out a former anchor after she spurned his sexual advances.

Network parent 21st Century Fox said Thursday that Rupert Murdoch, the company's executive chairman, would run Fox News and its sister Fox Business Network, which Ailes also had led, until a successor could be found.

Murdoch and 21st Century Fox did not address the widening scandal in the statement on the resignation but lauded Ailes for his contributions. Ailes did not comment in the resignation announcement.

"I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice," Murdoch said. "Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country."

Cutting short a vacation, the 85-year-old Murdoch addressed Fox News employees Thursday in New York. Details were not given on the settlement agreement for a contract that was supposed to run through 2018, but Ailes is expected to get a payment of at least $40 million.

The blustery, 76-year-old media executive built a network that both transformed the news business and changed the political conversation. Fox News Channel 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 it was impossible to get things done in government.

Ailes' downfall began with the July 6 filing of a lawsuit by Gretchen Carlson, who charged he sabotaged her career because she refused his suggestions for sex and had complained about a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment at Fox. Ailes has denied the charges, but 21st Century Fox hired a law firm to investigate.

In a statement, Carlson's attorneys credited Carlson's "extraordinary courage" with causing "a seismic shift in the media world."

Several Fox employees jumped to Ailes' defense, but notably not Megyn Kelly, one of Fox's top personalities. In rapid succession, it was reported Kelly was among other women who had told investigators about harassment -- again denied by Ailes -- and corporate heads Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, determined Ailes had to go. The company has no plans to make results of its investigation public.

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. Two came forward publicly.

Before the charges, 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 21st Century cable news business," said Matt Sienkiewicz, communications professor at Boston College.

Ailes blew apart the notion public-affairs programming should target a broad audience with civil debates, he said.

Ailes hired a combative broadcast journeyman in Bill O'Reilly and turned him into the star of an opinionated prime-time lineup.