PANIC STATIONS

Fox News Megastar Forced to Read Humiliating Apology

Maria Bartiromo began a pattern of apologies on the network following fact-free claims by Canadian Trump fan Kevin O’Leary.

One of the biggest names on Fox News was forced to issue an embarrassing on-air apology after Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary pushed a completely unsubstantiated claim during her show.

Maria Bartiromo interrupted her Fox Business Network show on Friday morning to issue a humiliating public apology for O’Leary, who falsely suggested in May that opponents of his Utah data center were being funded by China.

“Mr. O’Leary has now corrected the record and explained that he has no evidence that the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Josh Kanter, Taylor Knuth, or Gabriel Finlayson are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party,” Bartiromo said.

“Fox News Media is likewise aware of no evidence that they are funded by, acting at the direction of, or coordinating with Chinese interests in opposing Kevin O’Leary’s project. Fox News Media apologizes for the error.”

Bartiromo also displayed on-screen the retraction O’Leary issued on social media, in which he clarified that he had “no evidence” that people objecting to the mammoth data center project have ties to or are being funded by China.

Unlike Bartiromo, O’Leary did not actually apologize for pushing the false claims about the opponents of the Utah project.

“Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would want to stop us from having the computing capacity to develop AI? Which adversary would want that? There’s only one. It’s China,” O’Leary said during his May appearance on Bartiromo’s show while wearing a “Utah National Security” hat.

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Bartiromo wasn’t the only Fox star who had to issue an on-air apology after O’Leary retracted his comments.

The Big Weekend Show host Johnny Joey Jones also read a similarly worded apology after O’Leary “corrected the record” about comments he made during a May 24 appearance on the program. Kayleigh McEnany also issued an apology during Saturday in America.

As noted by Status’ Oliver Darcy, the “coordinated cleanup effort” from Fox News is a rare “display of remorse from a network that seldom assumes such a defensive posture.”

“What exactly prompted O’Leary and Fox to embark on this unusual apology tour remains unclear, but it’s a safe bet that a legal threat was involved,” Darcy wrote. “Once O’Leary publicly acknowledged he had no evidence for his allegations, Fox was left in an uncomfortable position.”

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In April 2023, Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for more than $787 million after the network repeatedly amplified conspiracy theories that Dominion voting machines were used to rig the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden over Donald Trump.

The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.

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