John Moody, the veteran Fox News executive who wrote an inflammatory column about the U.S. Winter Olympic team last month that was eventually taken down, has left the company.
“John Moody has retired from Fox News,” the network said in a statement.
Moody was a key lieutenant to the late Fox News executive Roger Ailes, but his impact and oversight had receded in recent years. Still, he held the titles executive editor and executive vice president for Fox News, which spoke to his seniority at the company.
Moody had gotten Fox News into hot water for writing in early February that the U.S. Olympic Committee aspired to make the Winter Olympics team “Darker, Gayer, Different.” Three gay rights organizations criticized the piece in statements to The Hollywood Reporter.
Two days after the column was published on the Fox News website, it was taken down, as first reported by THR. “John Moody’s column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News and has been removed,” the network said in a statement at the time.
The news of Moody’s retirement was first reported Thursday evening by CNN.
