Fox News sheds Ailes' original 'fair and balanced' slogan
Fox News will no longer bill itself as 'fair and balanced,' it was learned on Wednesday.
The conservative-leaning cable news channel is dropping the 'Fair & Balanced' slogan that it has attached to its brand ever since it launched in 1996, according to New York magazine.
Instead, the network will market itself from now with the sales pitch: 'Most Watched. Most Trusted.'
The decision to shed the 'fair and balanced' slogan was made this past August following the dismissal of Fox News' late founder and chairman, Roger Ailes.
According to New York magazine, the decision was made by Fox News co-president Jack Abernathy.
The rationale given for the move was that the phrase 'fair and balanced' had been 'mocked,' according to a Fox News insider.
When Ailes started Fox News over 20 years ago, he made his employees undergo seminars whose central theme was 'fair and balanced,' according to New York.
Fox News will no longer bill itself as 'fair and balanced,' it was learned on Wednesday
The decision to shed the 'fair and balanced' slogan was made this past August by network co-president Jack Abernathy (left). The change was prompted by the dismissal of Fox News' late founder, Roger Ailes (seen in the above 2015 file photo)
'He would call a group of senior producers and make you watch the channel and he'd point out stuff, like a banner that's slightly liberal,' a senior producer is quoted as saying.
'He would say, "The news is like a ship. If you take hands off the wheel, it pulls hard to the left".'
Ailes would also use 'fair and balanced' as a measuring stick on whom to hire.
If Ailes interviewed a candidate he did not like, he would say that the person was not hired because they weren't 'fair and balanced.'
Last July, Ailes (seen above with his wife Elizabeth Tilson outside the News Corp building in New York last July) resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News after a number of current and former female employees came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment
Ailes' departure set off a chain of events that has resulted in a transformation at Fox News, which has been rocked by big-name departures. Megyn Kelly (left) left the network earlier this year to join NBC, and Bill O'Reilly (right) was fired in April over sexual harassment allegations
A Fox News spokesperson told New York that the new tagline won't have any effect on the channel's editorial policies or its programming.
Ailes, 77, died on May 18 at his home in Palm Beach after he was hospitalized for several days due to injuries sustained from a fall.
Last July, Ailes resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News after a number of current and former female employees came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment.
Ailes denied the allegations.
Ailes' departure set off a chain of events that has resulted in a transformation at Fox News, which has been rocked by big-name departures.
Sean Hannity (above), who hosts a nightly 10pm show, remains one of the few links to the Ailes era at Fox News
One of Ailes' accusers, Megyn Kelly, left the network for NBC earlier this year.
Most recently, Bill O'Reilly, who hosted the highly rated O'Reilly Factor program, was fired after it was learned that he paid $13million to settle sexual harassment complaints made by five different women.
The public backlash and the exodus of advertisers from his show compelled Rupert Murdoch and his sons to force O'Reilly out.
Tucker Carlson has stepped in to fill the void left by O'Reilly.
Sean Hannity, who hosts a nightly 10pm show, remains one of the few links to the Ailes era at Fox News.