Murdoch’s Defiance Over O’Reilly Gives Way to Pragmatism - By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUMAPRIL 19, 2017 Rupert Murdoch stood behind his top American asset, the anchor Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, for years, shrugging off a sexual harassment scandal in the mid-2000s and multiple complaints about Mr. O’Reilly’s behavior that surfaced behind closed doors. In a memo to the Fox News staff on Wednesday, Mr. Murdoch praised Mr. O’Reilly as “one of the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news,” and he wrote that he understood “how difficult this has been for many of you.” The deed, however, was done. But it may have been less so than the episode last summer involving Mr. Ailes, who, besides being a critical colleague, was something of a Murdoch friend, one who helped Mr. Murdoch start Fox News two decades ago. Mr. Murdoch, who often resists outside pressure, was also being counseled by his sons, James and Lachlan Murdoch, who are the top executives at 21st Century Fox and are intent on steering the family ship far into a new century, with new standards of workplace behavior. Mr. Murdoch, who took over stewardship of Fox News after Mr. Ailes’s departure, decided in January to replace his departing star Megyn Kelly with Tucker Carlson, a seemingly past-his-prime conservative pundit who at the time was best known for wearing colorful bow ties on air. Mr. Murdoch had recently been presented with firsthand evidence that, for viewers, the Fox News message might be more important than the person who delivers it.
