A new report on Thursday quoted a critic of Fox News who is predicting that some of the network’s top talent are on the chopping block following a massive $785 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
According to a source who spoke to RadarOnline.com, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro are likely to be terminated from Fox News as CEO Rupert Murdoch seeks to reduce the network’s perceived vulnerability following its settlement.
” In a sudden development to come just two days after Dominion agreed to settle their $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News for $787.5 million, Puck founder and Fox News critic Dylan Byers predicted both Bartiromo and Pirro will be axed from the network,” RadarOnline.com reported.
Byers suggested that if the reporters are not dismissed, they could receive a warning to exercise caution in avoiding the risk of committing libel 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,” Byers said shortly after Fox News and Dominion settled on Tuesday.
“Alternatively, Rupert and Suzanne have already decided to elegantly and eventually show Bartiromo and/or Pirro the door,” he continued.
There is no evidence yet that anyone is going to be fired; Byers is speculating.
But he did reference a series of statements made by media mogul Rupert Murdoch during his deposition, in which the 92-year-old suggested that Fox News commentators, rather than the network itself, had promoted false allegations about the 2020 US Presidential election being stolen from then-President Donald Trump.
“Not Fox, no. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe [Bartiromo] as commentators,” Murdoch reportedly said during a deposition earlier this year. “Some of our commentators were endorsing it.”
“If I’m [Bartiromo], that feels like the kiss of death,” Byers noted.
“The last thing on earth that Murdoch wants is to leave himself vulnerable to another $787-million headache.”
In its lawsuit, Dominion’s lawyers noted that 18 of 20 allegations of libel came from Bartiromo, Dobbs, and Pirro.