Maria Bartiromo Out at Fox News
Category: News & Politics
Via: hallux • 2 months ago • 4 commentsBy: Joe Flint and Isabella Simonetti - WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News has parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo.
The journalist is no longer with Fox News Media, effective Thursday, the network said in a news release.
Bartiromo, 58, hadn’t been on Fox News or Fox Business for almost a month. Her last appearance was on her Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures” on Aug. 9.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” Fox News said.
Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
Bartiromo violated company policy by disclosing to the White House news-coverage plans in the wake of President Trump’s July 16 speech about election security, a person familiar with the matter said.
Neither Bartiromo nor her lawyer responded to several requests for comment. Fox News said in a statement that Bartiromo was removed for “business reasons.”
The newsletter Status earlier reported that Bartiromo had disclosed coverage plans to the White House.
One of the highest-profile personalities at Fox News, Bartiromo was known in recent years for her staunch advocacy for Trump and his administration. She had been with Fox since 2014, hosting as many as 16½ hours of programming each week, primarily on Fox Business.
Trump expressed support for Bartiromo late Thursday. “Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior,” he said in a Truth Social post. “Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy.”
Bartiromo’s on-air comments have at times drawn controversy. She issued an on-air apology in June after investor and television personality Kevin O’Leary claimed on one of her shows that opponents of his planned Utah data center were backed by Chinese interests, an assertion he later said he had no evidence to support.
Comments that Bartiromo and others made on her show were featured in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox over false allegations that the voting machine company helped rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Fox settled with Dominion in 2023 for $787.5 million.
She is also a defendant in a continuing defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic over false claims that the voting technology company helped rig the 2020 presidential election.
Fox has said that Smartmatic has been mired in scandals, and can’t prove that any Fox reports caused the company to lose business or suffer other financial harm.
Bartiromo spent her early career at CNBC, where she gained the nickname “Money Honey” and became a staple of market coverage from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
She was brought to Fox News by then-CEO Roger Ailes, who ran CNBC when Bartiromo became a prominent figure.
Her show “Mornings With Maria” have averaged 114,000 viewers on Fox Business year-to-date, while her Friday show “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” drew an average of 97,000, according to Nielsen data. “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News has had 1.8 million viewers on average, year-to-date.
Fox News remains by far the most-watched cable-news network, averaging nearly 2.5 million viewers in prime time during the second quarter, compared with about 1.1 million for MS Now and 711,000 for CNN.
Fox Business averaged 242,000 total business-day viewers during the second quarter, versus 234,000 for competitor CNBC, according to Nielsen.
The last episode of “Mornings With Maria” aired Thursday morning without her on air and the show will transition to “Mornings With FOX Business” beginning Friday with rotating anchors, Fox News said. “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” will change to “FBN’s Wall Street” this week, hosted by Cheryl Casone followed by rotating anchors.
“Sunday Morning Futures” will be hosted by Jason Chaffetz this week, and a new host will be announced at a later date, the network said.
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The morphing of Karoline Leavitt chrysalis into a Maria Bartiromo mothra?
She seemed like a perfectly reasonable journalist when she was at CNBC. But since going to Fox, and falling in love with MAGA, it’s like watching someone succumb to dementia.
I remember her from those early days.
And IIRC she was a pioneer-- one of the first (if not the first) woman to be widely accepted as a stock market commentator.)
And in those early days . . , her commentary was apolitical!