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Maria Bartiromo’s attorney railed at reporting that suggests the longtime business-news anchor was fired by Fox News Media, and suggested she was ready to take the company to court.
“The irresponsible reports that have
been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,”- said Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Bartiromo, in a statement issued Friday. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth. “
Fox News on Thursday said it had parted ways with Bartiromo, who joined as an anchor at both Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel in 2013.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
Bartiromo has not been on air since Aug. 9, and the last episode of the show that had been built around her, “Mornings With Maria,” aired Thursday morning on Fox Business Network. She did not appear on air to bid farewell to her viewers and she has — so far, at least — not posted any statements regarding her departure on social media.
Reasons for the split were not outlined directly, but Bartiromo has increasingly reveled in right-wing politics — and some of her on-air remarks during Fox shows have spurred speculation about why a top-tier business journalist would go down rabbit holes and bring up conspiracy theories. In June, Bartiromo read an apology on air after entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary appeared on her program a month earlier and made the false accusation that detractors of a data center he wanted to build in Utah were being funded by China.
Bartiromo was one of a handful of Fox News personnel cited in materials tied a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by voting technology company Dominion Voting against Fox News in 2021. Fox ultimately agreed to settle the matter for a whopping $787.5 million. The allegations said Bartiromo had allowed false claims about the 2020 presidential election to air on the network as part of a bid to keep angry viewers from abandoning its program.
Bartiromo is believed to have passed along a directive issued to executive producers at Fox Business to the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter, and those instructions may have cautioned Fox Business staffers against support to outlandish claims made by Trump in public remarks. Divulging confidential company information to an outside party would likely be seen as a violation of terms of employment. A Fox News spokesperson called Bartiromo’s departure “a business decision.” Some details of Bartiromo’s actions were previously reported by Status, a newsletter focused on the media industry. Fox News declined to make executives available for comment.
In past cases, Fox has parted ways abruptly with prominent anchors because they fell out of favor, as Tucker Carlson did in 2023; because of scandal, as was the case with Bill O’Reilly in 2017when he was accused of multiple examples of sexual harassment which he denied; or because the journalist was moving into politics, as happened with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who left behind weekend hosting duties on Fox News as he contemplated a run for the White House in 2015.
