Since Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle their legal dispute, speculation has surrounded the network’s future plans. According to Radar Online, some unconfirmed rumors suggest that two renowned hosts may be let go.
The founder of Puck News, Dylan Byers, has predicted that Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro will be the two broadcasters to be fired. Other unsubstantiated reports have indicated that even Sean Hannity, host of the Sean Hannity Show, may receive a warning.
Byers stated, however, that there is a possibility that they will not be dismissed, but rather warned to watch what they say in the future.
“So I anticipate one of two things will happen here, or has perhaps already happened: The first possibility is that Fox News C.E.O. Suzanne Scott sits down with Bartiromo and Pirro and anyone else who came up to the line of libel and says, be careful,” he said.
“Alternatively, Rupert and Suzanne have already decided to elegantly and eventually show Bartiromo and/or Pirro the door,” he said.
During his testimony, Murdoch stated that it was not Fox News that made false statements about the 2020 presidential election, but rather certain presenters.
“Not Fox, no. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe [Bartiromo] as commentators,” Murdoch said. “Some of our commentators were endorsing it.”
“If I’m [Bartiromo], that feels like the kiss of death,” Byers said.
“The last thing on earth that Murdoch wants is to leave himself vulnerable to another $787-million headache,” he said.
“If you’re trying to avoid future libel lawsuits, that’s not exactly the kind of person you want on camera,” he said.
Deciphering the post-settlement legal murmurs surrounding Fox’s new vulnerabilities, audience leakage, and a potential blood sacrifice.
With Puck’s @tina_nguyen, @DylanByers, and @eriqgardner https://t.co/VnmHkfUAAz
— Puck (@PuckNews) April 19, 2023
The presenters of “The View” on ABC were enraged by the conclusion of Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox News.
Fox News agreed to pay Dominion a record $757.5 for defamation, but the news network was not required to issue an apology. The settlement was reached on Tuesday.
“Fox News CEO admitted in a deposition the network knew they were pushing lies,” cohost Whoopi Goldberg said. “Should they have had to go onto their own network and say, look, yes, we lied to y’all. And we knew it and we had to pay this money because we lied to y’all. They don’t have to do that. They don’t have to admit any wrongdoing.”
“That’s my biggest problem with it because we already know the Fox News viewer exclusively gets his or her news from Fox News on air,” co-host Sunny Hostin said. “They don’t read other newspapers, they don’t get news from any other outlet, and the fact the New York Times is covering it and CNN is covering it, that’s fine. But they need to be able to get on air and tell their viewers, ‘you can’t trust us. We lied to you. We affected our very democracy. Some of our anchors can’t be trusted,’ and they needed to say that.”
Hostin believed that the $757.5 million award, the highest in the history of defamation lawsuits, was insufficient.
“To me, anything under $1 billion I don’t think sends the right message because Rupert Murdoch, every year, I think he has $2.9 billion in pro forma earnings that Fox News makes, and he still has $4 billion in cash as of February. In my view, it didn’t sting enough for what they actually did,” she said.
“You wanted to hear Tucker go out there…but I think is’ good, it’s OK, because, I mean, you’re disappointed, but there are other lawsuits coming up,” cohost Joy Behar said. “If Rupert [Murdoch] wanted to maintain any integrity, he’d fire Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity.”
More on this story via Conservative Brief:
“I understand there’s a lot coming down the pike,” cohost Whoopi Goldberg said. “But I don’t like the idea that they don’t have to say it out loud. I don’t like that you’re hoping people will read the deposition. I wanted them to have to say, ‘we lied. And we knew we were lying but we lied anyway.’” CONTINUE READING…
