{"id":16993,"date":"2026-09-05T05:13:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turkeynews24.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/05\/maria-bartiromo-vs-fox-news-pivot-between-politics-wall-street-hurt\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T05:13:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:13:44","slug":"maria-bartiromo-vs-fox-news-pivot-between-politics-wall-street-hurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/turkeynews24.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/05\/maria-bartiromo-vs-fox-news-pivot-between-politics-wall-street-hurt\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Bartiromo vs. Fox News: Pivot Between Politics, Wall Street Hurt"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\tMaria Bartiromo was brought to Fox<\/a> to cover the ins and outs of Wall Street, and make the company a bigger presence in the world of business-news cable<\/a>. But her growing interest in punditry and opinion left Fox increasingly uncovered before the law.<\/p>\n

\tAnd that constant back-and-forth likely caused something of which a financial reporter is very aware: Her stock at Fox began to drop. She has not been on the air since August 9. <\/p>\n

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\tIn June, Bartiromo read an apology on air after entrepreneur and \u201cShark Tank\u201d personality Kevin O\u2019Leary appeared on one of her shows 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. For executives at Fox News Media, it may have been the second-to-last straw. \t<\/p>\n

\tBartiromo is believed to have passed along a directive issued to executive producers at 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 President Donald Trump in public remarks. Divulging confidential company information to an outside party would likely be seen as a violation of terms of employment. <\/p>\n

\tAn attorney for Bartiromo, Bryan Freedman, railed against those details. \u201cThe 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,\u201d he said in a statement Friday. \u201cMake 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. \u201c Freedman has represented news personalities including Megyn Kelly<\/a> and Tucker Carlson<\/a> after they had fallings-out, respectively, with NBCUniversal and Fox News. \t<\/p>\n

\tFox News Media announced it had parted ways with Bartiromo Thursday<\/a>, in a terse note that offered little explanation for cutting ties with one of the company\u2019s best-known and most vociferous on-air personalities. A Fox News spokesperson called Bartiromo\u2019s departure \u201ca business decision.\u201d Some details of Bartiromo\u2019s actions were previously reported by Status, a newsletter focused on the media industry. Fox News declined to make executives available for comment.<\/p>\n

\tWhile Bartiromo had a regular Sunday-morning show, \u201cSunday Morning Futures,\u201d on Fox News Channel, where she often interviewed members of Trump\u2019s Cabinet, her main job remained covering the ins-and-outs of Wall Street. She anchored hours and hours of markets and business coverage on Fox Business Network, both on her early-morning program \u201cMornings With Maria\u201d as well as the Friday program \u201cMaria Bartiromo\u2019s Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPresident Trump predicted backlash for Fox News following its decision. \u201cI can\u2019t believe Maria Bartiromo<\/a> is no longer going to have her great show(s) on Fox News\/Business,\u201d Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account Thursday evening. \u201cThree different shows, always number one. Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHer main business program, however, was not generating top dollar for Fox News, or its parent, Fox Corporation. Indeed, in recent quarters, \u201cMornings With Maria\u201d attracted fewer viewers than its main rival, CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box,\u201d according to data from Nielsen. More troubling, perhaps, is the show\u2019s lack of pull among viewers between 25 and 54 \u2014 the demographic craved most by advertisers in news programming. <\/p>\n

\tIn the third quarter of 2026, \u201cMornings With Maria\u201d captured just 5,000 viewers between 25 and 54, according to Nielsen, compared with 24,000 for \u201cSquawk Box.\u201d Bartiromo\u2019s show for many months beat out CNBC in terms of the broader crowd watching, but since the start of 2026, \u201cSquawk Box\u201d has won a larger audience. In the second quarter, \u201cSquawk Box\u201d captured an average of 140,000 viewers, one of its biggest ratings wins in months. \u201cMornings With Maria\u201d lured an average of 123,000.<\/p>\n

\tAd dollars earmarked for her shows on Fox Business Network fell to $3.7 million in 2025, according to data from iSpot, a tracker of ad spending, down from $8.9 million in 2022 \u2014 a decline of nearly 58%. Meanwhile, ad money supporting \u201cSunday Morning Futures\u201d on Fox News fell to $6.1 million in 2025, according to iSpot, down from $7.8 million in 2022 \u2014 a dip of nearly 22%. \t<\/p>\n

\tBartiromo\u2019s penchant for politics has already cost Fox money. 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. She is also a defendant in a separate defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, another voting-technology firm over false claims made on Fox the company played a role in affecting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Fox has said Smartmatic can\u2019t prove that any reporting on Fox News properties caused it to suffer any financial harm.<\/p>\n

\tThis isn\u2019t the way many people think of Bartiromo, who earned a well-deserved reputation for breaking down barriers. She was the first TV journalist \u2014 working at CNBC \u2013to deliver live reports from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and parlayed the assignment into a bigger overall TV presence. Over two decades at CNBC, she moved from covering market activity to interviewing prominent CEOs with a style that was aggressive but flattering in equal measure.<\/p>\n

\tParting ways with top talent brings with it the frenetic task of trying to replace them without surprising viewers further. Executives at Fox News may have more confidence they can navigate such issues, however, because they have done so quite well in the not-so-distant past. Fox News has managed through the departures of former primetime stars like Bill O\u2019Reilly as well as Kelly and Carlson. <\/p>\n

\tThe company also has a set of very loyal viewers, who are willing to let Fox News run rotating anchors in an hour after popular personalities leave, and to give a chance to up and comers. Fox News largely re-set its primetime lineup in 2023 <\/a>by putting Jesse Watters in Carlson\u2019s former 8 p.m. time slot and moving Greg Gutfeld\u2019s 11 p.m. program to 10. <\/p>\n

\tBartiromo may also have been seen as increasingly expensive in an era when traditional cable is in a battle for its livelihood with the appeal of cord cutting. Fox Business Network will still generate millions in revenue in years ahead, but, like others, is under pressure, according to Kagan, a market-research firm that is a unit of S&P Global Intelligence. Distribution revenue is seen dipping to $289 million in 2027, according to Kagan estimates, a dip of just 3% from $298.1 million in 2025. Ad sales are seen falling 11% to $55.6 million in 2025, compared with $62.7 million in 2005. And subscribers are declining, with Kagan projecting a base of 53.7 million in 2027, compared with 60.9 million last year. \t<\/p>\n

\tTalking about election integrity and data centers isn\u2019t what viewers expected when Bartiromo initially signed on. Lured away from CNBC by former Fox News chief Roger Ailes \u2014 who had a hand in her early rise when he helped build the one-time NBCUniversal cable outlet. When she arrived at Fox more than a decade ago<\/a>, Bartiromo aimed to give business-news aficionados more than just stock quotes. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere was a moment in time when it was really all about the stock market, and I know, because I was there,\u201d she told Variety<\/em> in 2014<\/a>. \u201dI think today viewers want something very different.\u201d People with an interest in business \u201cwant to know about the latest technology. They want the international story, the emerging markets. They want to know about jobs. They want to know more and expect more and deeper perspective. That really is my opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tGiven recent developments, Bartiromo may have squandered it. Fox News on Thursday said it planned to unveil an entirely new daytime lineup for its business-news network \u2014 one that doesn\u2019t have the popular anchor on the schedule.<\/p>\n