NEW YORK _ In the end, Fox News is Rupert Murdoch's baby, and now that it's in trouble, he will take care of it.
In a corporate move that no one saw coming, Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, was named acting chairman of Fox News after the resignation of Roger Ailes, amid charges of sexual harassing female employees at the company.
Ailes resignation, announced Thursday afternoon, is effective immediately. Murdoch is assuming the role of chairman and acting chief executive of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network while a search for a permanent successor takes place over the coming months. But even after a replacement for Ailes is named, Murdoch will continue to hold the chairman title.
The move of putting Murdoch in charge of the channel is stunning but is clearly aimed at calming the organization that has been rocked by the charges of sexual harassment against Ailes that ultimately forced him out of the company.
Several Fox News stars have clauses in their contract that tie their commitments to Ailes being in charge of the network. Having Murdoch, widely respected in the organization, should quell concerns over the departure of Ailes, who was in charge of Fox News since its launch in 1996.
"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country," Murdoch said in a statement announcing the moves. "Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years. Fox News has given voice to those who were ignored by the traditional networks and has been one of the great commercial success stories of modern media."
Murdoch added that "to ensure continuity of all that is best about Fox News and what it stands for," he will support the company's management team under Bill Shine, Jay Wallace and Mark Kranz.
However, the fact that Murdoch is temporarily in charge is an indication that there was no succession plan in place at Fox News despite Ailes' age, 76, and ill health in recent years.
"It appears to be a holding action," said Joe Peyronnin, a journalism professor at Hofstra University and former CBS News executive. "They were unprepared for his sudden departure. They clearly don't have an immediate successor, and Ailes' lieutenants are loyal to Roger so they will have to be carefully evaluated."
Ailes, who built Fox into the most influential force in the news media over the last two decades, has been under fire since former anchor Gretchen Carlson alleged that her contract was not renewed after she spurned sexual advances by him.
Since the allegations by Carlson became public _ she filed a suit in a New Jersey Superior Court on July 6 _ reports have emerged of other women who have worked with the executive in the past also saying that he sought sexual favors in return for employment. Ailes has denied those incidents as well.
Attorneys for Carlson had said they had been contacted by as many as 20 women who said they were subjected to inappropriate behavior by Ailes.
Only last year, Ailes signed a new four-year contract to keep him as the head of Fox News. The financial performance of his division appeared to protect him from any personal disdain that Murdoch's sons may have had for him.
But 21st Century Fox acted fast in launching an internal investigation into Ailes' behavior after Carlson fired her suit. Current and past employees for Fox News were interviewed, and six women reportedly said they had experienced some kind of sexual harassment.
Megyn Kelly's attorney confirmed that the star anchor cooperated in the investigation. There have been reports that she gave her own account of being sexually harassed by Ailes.
Her statements likely had a major impact the decision to part ways with Ailes. Kelly is a rising star at Fox News and her contract expires in the middle of next year.
Kelly had been effusive in her praise of Ailes in recent press interviews, crediting him with her success at Fox News. But her silence after many of her other colleagues spoke out in support of Ailes after Carlson's lawsuit was filed became conspicuous.
For Ailes, the departure is a stunning, ignominious ending of a remarkable career.
Ailes rose from working-class beginnings in Ohio to become one of the most powerful and influential figures in media and politics. After working as a TV producer for "The Mike Douglas Show," in the 1960s, he became a media adviser for Richard Nixon's 1968 successful presidential campaign. He was involved in Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election effort in 1984 and engineered a turnaround for George H.W. Bush, overseeing the media strategy for his 1988 White House win.
Ailes applied his ability to move the hearts and minds of voters to television news when Murdoch enlisted him to launch Fox News channel as a competitor to CNN, which had the cable news market to itself.
The challenge appeared massive as the Fox brand name in television was associated with the upstart broadcast network best known at the time for "The Simpsons." Fox had no legacy in the TV news business while CNN was entrenched as cable viewers' go to service for 24-hour news.
