Fox News fires a prime-time regular amid a week of tough headlines
The New York Times
For Fox News, it was another unkind week in an unkind year.
The network’s founding chairman, Roger Ailes, died Thursday, sending a shock through a newsroom still reeling from a string of harassment scandals, lawsuits and high-profile departures. The threat of a federal investigation into the network’s financial practices has lingered.
And on Friday, another prominent on-air personality was abruptly tossed. Bob Beckel, a co-host of the prime-time talk show “The Five,” was fired after an African-American employee accused him of making a racially insensitive remark.
The drumbeat of tough headlines has taken a toll on morale at Fox News, with employees on and off camera describing a feeling of being under siege.
And after years as the undisputed king of cable news, Fox News ranked third in prime-time this week among the 25-54 age group most important to advertisers, finishing behind its rivals MSNBC and CNN. In total audience, MSNBC edged out Fox News in prime-time on three nights, an unsettling sign for an evening schedule scrambled by last month’s exit of Bill O’Reilly.
Including daytime hours, Fox News remains first in total audience; last week, it notched its 19th consecutive weekly ratings win. But amid a series of damaging news reports this week about President Donald Trump, the conservative network’s hosts stirred some skepticism among media commentators by instead airing stories about the Clintons’ charitable foundation — the Fox News equivalent of a greatest hits reel.
The exit of Mr. Beckel — one of the channel’s few leftleaning commentators, and known for his signature suspenders — also refocused attention on whether Fox News’ workplace culture had changed after the departures of Mr. Ailes and Mr. O’Reilly.
Mr. Beckel was accused of walking out of his office this week after an African-American network employee arrived to service his computer. Mr. Beckel said that he was leaving because the employee was black, according to the employee’s lawyer, Douglas H. Wigdor.
Mr. Wigdor, who represents 13 Fox News employees in a class-action racial discrimination suit against the network, said Mr. Beckel tried to persuade his client to withdrawthe complaint during a meeting with Fox News’ new executive vice president for human resources, Kevin Lord.
Fox News disputed that account — and portrayed the episode as an example of its newly rapid response to internal problems.
Along with Mr. Lord, the network has hired executives for its human resources team and has strengthened sensitivity training requirements.
This is not Mr. Beckel’s first acrimonious departure from Fox News: He was dismissed from “The Five” in 2015, but was welcomed back earlier this year. The network’s executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, offered Mr. Beckel a warm reception upon his return.
Mr. Ailes’ death, caused by complications from a fall last week at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., was a jarring reminder of how much has changed in the past 10 months at the network. Anchors offered teary on-air tributes to him throughout the day Thursday, some acknowledging his flaws, while hailing his skills and vision as a broadcaster.
A day after the death of Mr. Ailes, the fate of the federal investigation into him and the news network he founded remained unclear.
The inquiry, which began in September, has appeared to focus in part on how settlements at the network were paid and accounted for. Two people familiar with the matter said they were given signals after news broke that Mr. Ailes had died that the investigation was proceeding, although another person said it remained to be seen how its scope and target could change. It is possible the investigation could be put on hold.