William Shine (born July 4, 1963) is a former

White House Deputy Chief of Staff The White House deputy chief of staff is officially the top aide to the White House chief of staff, who is the senior aide to the president of the United States. The deputy chief of staff usually has an office in the West Wing and is responsible ...

for Communications in the

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U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

. He spent most of his career as a producer and executive at

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

. Most recently, he was co-president of Fox News, a position he held for 9 months before he was forced out on May 1, 2017. On March 8, 2019, the White House announced that Shine was resigning to advise President Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

Early life and education

A twin, Shine grew up in

East Northport East Northport is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Huntington, New York, Huntington in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 20,217 at th ...

, Long Island, New York; his father was a New York City police officer. The family were

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Catholic. He received a B.A. in communications from the State University of New York at Oswego. After college, he worked as a producer for local TV stations on Long Island beginning in 1985 with WLIG-TV.

Career with FNC

Shine began working for Fox News as the senior producer of ''

Hannity & Colmes ''Hannity & Colmes'' was a live television show on Fox News in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 7, 1996, and the final epi ...

''. By 1999, Shine was the senior prime-time producer for

. The following year Shine was the executive producer of Fox News Channel's prime-time programs. In 2001, on Fox News Channel's ''

The Edge David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is an English-born Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing voca ...

'',

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...

Sylvia Browne Sylvia Celeste Browne (''née'' Shoemaker; October 19, 1936 – November 20, 2013) was an American author who claimed to be a medium with psychic abilities. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on '' The Montel Willia ...

said that she knew where the body of

Chandra Levy Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – May 1, 2001) was an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek Park in May ...

was located. On Fox News Channel's '' Judith Regan Tonight'', psychic

James Van Praagh James Van Praagh (; born August 23, 1958) is an American author, producer and television personality who describes himself as a clairvoyant and spiritual medium. By 2004, Shine was the

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

of production for Fox News Channel. The following year, Shine was Fox News Channel's senior vice president of programming. In 2005, when asked why the U.S. media carried many stories about missing white women (

missing white woman syndrome Missing white woman syndrome is a term which is used by social scientists and media commentators in reference to the media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases involving young, attractive, white, upper middle class women ...

) and disproportionately few about missing black women, Shine commented that "the stories that go national have a twist or an emotional aspect to them that make them interesting". In 2007, after Bill O'Reilly dined at Sylvia's soul-food restaurant in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

, he found his naive preconceptions challenged. O'Reilly admitted he "couldn't get over the fact" that eating at the restaurant "was like going into an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." Responding to criticism of O'Reilly's statement, Shine said, "This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings." In 2009, Fox News host Glenn Beck said that

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

"has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" and "is racist",Rhodes, E Washington. "Right-wing attacks on Obama growing". ''Philadelphia Tribune''. August 7, 2009. p. 4A. after President Obama said that

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

police officers acted "stupidly" by arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for breaking into his own home. Responding to Beck's comment, Shine said that Beck had "expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions." When Fox News Channel's journalists complained that Beck's show was undermining their work, Shine admitted that Beck was controversial and that the Fox News Channel had assigned a vice president the full-time job of overseeing Beck's show and to review its content in advance. In 2014, Shine was promoted to FNC's senior executive vice president of programming. Shine worked alongside of FNC chairman and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

Roger Ailes Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republica ...

for two decades. After Ailes left Fox, the new executive chairman,

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

named Shine and Jack Abernethy as co-presidents of Fox News in August 2016. Shine headed the network's news and programming operations. Shine was named in at least four lawsuits against FNC alleging sexual harassment or

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

by the company. In April 2017, '' New York'' magazine reported that Shine was uncertain about his future at Fox and that he did not think that

had been supportive enough of him. A Fox spokesperson denied that the conversations described in the report took place. Fox host

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of '' The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commen ...

supported Shine, saying that it would be "the total end of the as we know it" if Shine were fired. On May 1, 2017, Shine was forced out of Fox News.Grynbaum, Michael M.; Steel, Emily.
Fox News Executive Departs Amid Turmoil
. ''The New York Times''. May 1, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017. Suzanne Scott, who had served as the organization's senior vice president of programming and development since 2009, was promoted to co-president to take his place. It was later reported that Shine had been questioned by federal prosecutors, presumably about his role and actions at FNC.

Trump administration

Shine accepted an offer in June 2018 taking a position within the Trump administration as a Deputy White House Chief of Staff overseeing communication within the White House. On July 5, 2018, Shine's controversial appointment became official, despite its criticism personified by those such as Bill Kristol and underscored by protests including from Larry Klayman of ''

Judicial Watch Judicial Watch (JW) is an American conservative activist group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate claimed misconduct by government officials. Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particu ...

'', airing on conservative websites such as

Newsmax Newsmax (Newsmax Media, Inc. or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American right-wing to far-right cable news and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy on September 16, 1998. Newsmax Media divisions include its cable ...

. In particular, those objecting cited Shine's awareness at the time of the channel's hiring private detectives to intimidate alleged victims of Roger Ailes. Later it was reported Shine's compensation upon leaving Fox was in the neighborhood of $15 million. On March 8, 2019, it was announced by the White House that Shine was resigning from his position to serve as an advisor to President Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. Shine said in a statement about his resignation that he is "looking forward to working on President Trump's re-election campaign and spending more time with family." In May 2019, acting White House Chief of Staff

Mick Mulvaney John Michael Mulvaney (born July 21, 1967) is an American politician who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from February 2017 until March 2020, and as acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 until March ...

told ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

'' that he did not intend to replace Shine with a new communications director.

Transition after White House

In March, 2021, the ''New York Times'' reported that Mr. Shine had been working with the (then new) cable news network, NewsNation based out of WGN in Chicago. "The unrest at the channel’s flagship newscast started in earnest last month, when an industry publication reported that Bill Shine, a former Fox News co-president and Trump administration official, had been working since June as a “NewsNation” consultant. Until the article appeared, the staff did not know about his involvement, the six people said."

Personal life

Shine is married to Darla (née Seneck) Shine, a former TV producer and also from Fox News.

References