Fox News’ sudden firing of Tucker Carlson, its highest-rated star, sent the media industry into a frenzy, raising questions over what prompted the shock move and what impact, if any, a series of major lawsuits against the network had on the ouster.
A preponderance of reporting over the past few days has suggested that revelations from Dominion’s now-settled defamation lawsuit against the network and from former Tucker Carlson Tonight producer Abby Grossberg’s suit alleging a hostile workplace contributed to Fox’s decision to give Carlson the boot.
And now, looking toward the future, that raises a bigger question for some: If the lawsuits played a role in Carlson’s exit, why hasn’t Fox also given the boot to other figures—especially Maria Bartiromo—who loom large over the litigation?
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That point has not been lost on media observers, on both left and right.
“I think this is a massive misjudgment of what their audience wants,” former Fox host-turned-conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly said Monday on her show. “If… this is a reaction to the Dominion lawsuit, why is Maria Bartiromo there? Why is Jeanine Pirro still there? Why is Suzanne Scott still there?”
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.
Bartiromo in particular has emerged as a central figure in Fox’s ongoing woes. She was a key on-air booster of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election-fraud lies and, in internal documents made public last month in the Dominion case, she said she was “depressed” by Joe Biden’s election win and texted Trump aides such as Steve Bannon that she simply refused to accept his victory.
“I want to see massive fraud exposed. Will [Trump] be able to turn this around,” she asked Bannon on Nov. 10, three days after Fox projected Biden as the winner. “I told my team we’re not allowed to say pres elect. Not in scripts. Not in banners on air. Until this moves through the courts.”
Bartiromo was also named as a defendant in a separate defamation lawsuit filed by another voting tech company, Smartmatic, and she was heard on tapes produced by Grossberg, the former Carlson and Bartiromo producer, who alleged the network coerced her into false statements during her Dominion deposition.
In the audio recordings published by NBC News, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) pitched Bartiromo on a scheme to overthrow the election, elsewhere emphasizing to her that allegations of election fraud must include “demonstrable facts that can be laid out with evidence.”
Pirro similarly played a major role in the Dominion case. Emails released in pretrial filings showed that her own producer found a planned Judge Jeanine opening monologue so ludicrous—including false claims that Dominion was founded in Venezuela with Cuban funds and that it worked to steal the election—that he tried to get Fox executives to shut it down.
“It’s rife with conspiracy theories and BS and is yet another example why this woman should never be on live television,” executive producer Jerry Andrews wrote to two executives. Andrews said the segment would go through Fox’s “brain room,” its in-house fact-checking department—though their conclusions were ultimately ignored by Pirro.
Fox even pulled Pirro off the air for an evening just after the election because they could not trust her to be honest, according to a Dominion filing. Both Bartiromo and Pirro, along with former Fox host Lou Dobbs, eventually aired the same pre-taped fact-check segment that disputed many of the claims they aired on their shows.
And so, even though Carlson was swiftly given the boot, just days after Fox shelled out $787.5 million to Dominion, central figures like Bartiromo and Pirro remain with the network.
“They were way more out front in the Dominion lawsuit,” noted Larry Stuelpnagel, an associate professor of journalism and a lecturer in political science at Northwestern University. “They were also [more] out front than Tucker in the Dominion situation. Maybe there’s some negotiations going on right now with their contract—who knows what’s going to come out of that. Maybe when that next lawsuit comes, there will be more to learn.”
“Tucker Carlson’s ouster was a shock, but I do believe other personalities will be leaving in the months to come,” said Vanity Fair special correspondent Brian Stelter, the author of Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth and the upcoming Network of Lies. “I don’t know how many others, and I don’t know who exactly, but the fallout from the Dominion case is not over yet.”
Tom Clare, a lawyer for Dominion, declined to comment through a spokesperson. Smartmatic did not respond to a request for comment.
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch acknowledged in his deposition that the two hosts, along with Dobbs, believed Trump’s lies, though he tried to distance the network itself from their unhinged conspiracies. Fox later claimed that Bartiromo expressed uncertainty as time passed.
It’s Pirro and Bartiromo’s seeming loyalty and subservience to the network that perhaps sets them apart from Carlson, said Matthew Sheffield, a former conservative media personality who now hosts the podcast Theory of Change. Carlson thought of himself as being bigger than Murdoch’s media empire, an “authoritarian political system,” as Sheffield described it, which rankled the network’s top brass.
“That was basically the last straw,” he suggested. “It’s no different than, you know, they knew Bill O’Reilly was sexually harassing women. They knew Roger Ailes was creating his own sexual servant relationships for himself. It’s ultimately when they became too troublesome—that’s when someone at Fox is usually let go.”
And ultimately, Bartiromo and Pirro’s fate at the network may be firmly tied to the outcome of pending litigation. Grossberg has claimed the network perpetuated a sexist and misogynistic environment where Fox execs allegedly used vulgar terms to deride Bartiromo—something that could become a larger issue if either she or Pirro, two female hosts, are axed too soon.
“I would suspect that that’s coming in the future,” a lawyer involved with Grossberg’s case told The Daily Beast. “I think it’s kind of strategically smart for them to let go Tucker first before any of the female anchors involved.”
Others suggested that parting ways with Bartiromo right now and then having to replace her may present a hefty challenge during an already-tumultuous time at the network.
While Carlson hosted his own show five nights a week, along with a Fox Nation program, and Pirro serves as one of five anchors on The Five, Bartiromo leads three hours of the Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria alongside her hourlong hosting duties on the mothership channel Sunday Morning Futures. The latter show has often rated higher in both the key demographic of viewers ages 25-54 and total viewers than its 10 a.m. time slot competitors on both CNN and MSNBC.
“If Fox makes a change involving Maria, they’re going to need to figure out a backup plan,” Stelter said.
