When Roger Ailes founded Fox News in 1996, he made it one of the network’s core missions to fiercely oppose identity politics and political correctness. Now, nearly two years after Ailes was fired for sexual harassment, Fox News is getting woke. Today, Lachlan Murdoch announced the network’s longtime programming executive, Suzanne Scott, was being promoted to chief executive of the news organization, noting in the release that she “made history as its first female C.E.O.” Scott’s elevation comes two days after the network announced it had settled the remaining gender and racial discrimination lawsuits from the Ailes era for roughly $10 million.

View more

But as Fox News adapts its 1950s workplace culture to fit the times, staffers are on edge. According to sources, Fox News recently installed a “meditation room” complete with Muslim prayer rugs in Ollie North’s office in the network’s Washington bureau. (Earlier this month, North left Fox to become the president of the National Rifle Association.) Staffers now attend mandatory sexual harassment training, and the employee intranet includes a section for gender-transition policies and guidelines. “People are terrified. They kicked Ollie North out and put in a prayer room. We’ve got a new trans policy. You’re not allowed to be transphobic,” one source said. Other changes that would have been alien in the Ailes era include the creation of a workforce and diversity council. “People’s heads are blowing up,” one insider said.

“It’s not the Wild West anymore; there are now policies and procedures,” a network spokesperson told me.

Scott’s promotion comes as the Murdochs are preparing to sell off their film and entertainment assets to Disney for $52 billion. She joins other women who’ve moved into senior positions at Fox News, including the head of ad sales, the C.F.O., and general counsel. But Scott’s promotion isn’t being greeted as a feminist victory by all. Some staffers view her as a symbol of the Ailes era, because Ailes directed her to enforce his miniskirt wardrobe policy for on-air talent. (Through a spokesperson, Scott denies this.)