Following a report that Fox News co-president Bill Shine “is expressing concern about his future at the network,” Fox host Sean Hannity expressed support for Shine on Twitter, suggesting that if he departs Fox, “that’s the total end of FNC as we know it.”
Shine was promoted to co-president after former president and CEO Roger Ailes’ ouster in August 2016 over repeated sexual harassment complaints and lawsuits. But Shine has been named in various lawsuits against the network for his “complicity,” and it has previously been reported that Shine played a key role in helping cover up Ailes’ conduct by silencing and “smearing” women who complained.
On April 27, New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported that Shine is privately worried about his future at Fox, and that he recently asked James and Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO and co-chairman of Fox parent company 21st Century Fox, “to release a statement in support of him, but they refused to do so.” Sherman wrote that this refusal to publicly back Shine could mean that the Murdochs are finally prepared to clean house at the scandal-ridden network:
By refusing to back Shine at this tumultuous moment for the network, the Murdochs may finally be signaling that they’re prepared to make the sweeping management changes they’ve so far resisted after forcing out CEO Roger Ailes last summer. Shine’s continued leadership has angered many Fox News employees, especially women, who view him as a product of the misogynistic Ailes culture. Shine joined the network in 1996, served as Sean Hannity’s producer, and rose through the ranks to become Ailes’s deputy. In that role, sources say he had the power to stop multiple instances of sexual harassment, including that of former Fox booker Laurie Luhn, but did not do so. (Through a Fox News spokesperson, Shine denies this.) He’s currently a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed this week by former Fox host Andrea Tantaros.
In response to the story, Hannity wrote several tweets in defense of his former producer:
Gäbe i pray this is NOT true because if it is, that's the total end of the FNC as we know it. Done. Best Sean https://t.co/W3BJ2wjzRD
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 27, 2017
Somebody HIGH UP AND INSIDE FNC is trying to get an innocent person fired. And Gabe I KNOW WHO it is. Best Sean https://t.co/W3BJ2wjzRD
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 27, 2017
#Istandwithbill https://t.co/W3BJ2wjzRD
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 27, 2017
I'll change it. #Istandwithshine https://t.co/W3BJ2wjzRD
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 27, 2017