Meet Suzanne Scott: the new Fox News CEO who enforced the 'miniskirt rule'
Scott is the rightwing news organisation’s first female leader, but many question whether she is a break with the past
Fox News announced today their new CEO will be Suzanne Scott, currently the president of programming. The company has effectively been without an official CEO since Roger Ailes was ousted in 2016 amid sexual harassment allegations, although Rupert Murdoch had stepped in to run the channel during the interim.
In their press release about the news, Lachlan Murdoch – recently announced as CEO and chairman of Fox, Fox News’s parent company – made much of Scott being the organisation’s first female CEO. However, many are concerned that Scott is a member of Fox’s old guard and her appointment is not a break from the toxic workplace culture that led to so many harassment and discrimination claims being made.
Scott herself is mired in the many harassment claims. Staff were apparently aghast when she was promoted last year, as she had been the executive tasked with enforcing Ailes’s miniskirt dress code for women. One anonymous former staff member told the Daily Beast how Scott would enforce a “skimpy” dress code in coordination with the wardrobe and makeup departments.
Scott is also cited in lawsuits brought by the former Fox News staffers Andrea Tantaros and Julie Roginsky, as one of the executives at the company who either did not respond to or covered up their complaints of harassment.
According to Roginsky’s suit, Scott responded to host Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment claims against Roger Ailes by seeking to recruit on-air talent and contributors “to retaliate against Carlson by publicly disparaging her”. The suit says she “characterised this retaliatory onslaught as supporting ‘Team Roger’”.
Through a Fox News spokesperson, Scott has previously denied enforcing a dress code or corralling support for Ailes.
Scott had previously worked as an executive assistant to Chet Collier at CNBC, before moving with Collier to Fox News when he helped launch the station 22 years ago. She was promoted to president of programming last year after Bill Shine was ousted from the company amid multiple allegations that he had helped to cover up sexual harassment.
Her appointment comes two days after Fox News paid about $10m in a settlement that they hope will resolve many of their outstanding racial and gender discrimination lawsuits. According to documents seen by the New York Times, the terms of the settlement included employees promising to drop their claims and leave the company, suggesting Fox News was keen to draw a line under the scandals before Scott’s appointment.
Scott has not said much about the direction she is planning to take the channel, but she was influential in promoting Sean Hannity, the network’s star who has the ear of Donald Trump, to a 9pm slot. So it is likely her first job will be trying to keep the presenter on the channel, with rumours that rival organisation Sinclair is attempting to poach him.
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