NEW YORK - Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News Channel, has been named chairman of News Corp.'s group of television stations, a post recently vacated by the sudden departure last month of Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's eldest son.
Ailes, a former Republican party operative, has overseen the growth of Fox News Channel into the biggest cable news channel on television, overtaking rival CNN. The chief executive of the station group, Jack Abernethy, will report to Ailes.
The abrupt and unexplained departure of the 33-year-old Lachlan Murdoch late last month apparently dashed News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's hopes that his son would one day take over as CEO of the global media empire, which includes the Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, the Fox television network, several satellite broadcasters including DirecTV, and newspapers in Britain, Australia, and the New York Post.
In addition to overseeing the U.S. television station group, one of the largest in the country, Lachlan Murdoch also was publisher of the New York Post, oversaw the company's Australian newspapers and held the position of deputy chief operating officer.
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