Just 24 hours after Fox News Media was sued by voting software company Smartmatic for $2.7 billion, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has been taken off the air and will probably not appear on the network’s airwaves again, according to the Los Angeles Times:
“Fox News Media has canceled ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ the program hosted by television’s staunchest supporter of Donald Trump and of his assertions of voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Times has learned.
“Dobbs’ program, which airs twice nightly at 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Business Network, will have its final airing Friday, according to a Fox News representative who confirmed the cancellation. Starting next week, the program will be called “Fox Business Tonight,” with rotating substitute hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman, who filled in for Dobbs on Friday.
“Dobbs, 75, remains under contract at Fox News but he will in all likelihood not appear on the company’s networks again. In addition to his Fox Business Network program, he occasionally turned up on the Fox News Channel as a commentator.”
Smartmatic sued Fox for coverage on the network which they say defamed their company and has caused them to lose business, noting in their court filing they had identified ‘100 false statements and implications’ about their business:
“The lawsuit singles out Fox News and Fox Business Network hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, as well as two guests who repeatedly appeared on their shows in the weeks around the election: Trump-affiliated lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudolph W. Giuliani.”
Ironically, Fox allegedly engaged in lies about the 2020 presidential election in order to lure disgruntled voters back to their airwaves:
“The complaint claims that the network had been losing the faith of Trump’s political base and losing audience to smaller and more bombastic right-wing channels such as Newsmax and One America News. ‘Fox News needed a way to reclaim its favored status with President Trump and his followers.’”
For his part, Dobbs angrily lashed out at the network for putting him on the sidelines. Rather than comment directly, he retweeted people who slammed Fox News:
Fox News cancels longtime host Lou Dobbs’ show
@LouDobbs is one of the best anchors in the business.
Fox is in a race with itself to the bottom. https://t.co/gvIPhp7ya4
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 5, 2021
Because he is a truth teller…@LouDobbs is a threat to the giant cabal
https://t.co/iWy30RLsLv— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) February 5, 2021
Will Sean Hannity or Maria Bartiromo be next? That remains to be seen.
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