Fox News Media cancels highly rated 'Lou Dobbs Tonight'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Feb. 6, 2021, 12:58 AM UTC By Dylan Byers
Fox News Media has cancelled Lou Dobbs' show, benching its business network's highest-rated host and a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump as both Dobbs and Fox face a billion-dollar lawsuit over false claims about the integrity of the 2020 election.
The move, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by a Fox News spokesperson Friday, came one day after Fox and Dobbs were named in the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Smartmatic, a voting software company that was the subject of several false claims made on Fox News and Fox Business.
In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson portrayed the move as something that had been planned prior to the lawsuit.
"As we said in October, Fox News Media regularly considers programming changes and plans have been in place to launch new formats as appropriate post-election, including on Fox Business — this is part of those planned changes," the spokesperson said.
Dobbs' show, "Lou Dobbs Tonight," will be replaced by "Fox Business Tonight" with rotating hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman.
"A new 5PM program will be announced in the near future," the spokesperson said.
The cancellation brings an end to Dobbs' decade-long run on the network, where he was a staunch advocate for Trump and many of his most conspiratorial views. Dobbs was previously a host on CNN.
The Smartmatic suit alleges that Fox News, three of its hosts — Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro — and Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell defamed the company by falsely claiming that Smartmatic was used to rig the 2020 election.
In at least 13 different instances, those hosts or guests advanced demonstrably false claims about Smartmatic and its role in the 2020 election, including claims that it was being used to change the outcome in battleground districts. (In fact, Smartmatic software was only used in Los Angeles County, and there is no evidence of election fraud.)
If Fox News were forced to pay Smartmatic $2.7 billion in damages, it would effectively wipe out almost all the profit the company created for its parent company, Fox Corp., in the fiscal year of 2019.
In a statement, Fox News said it was "committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion. We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit in court."
Dylan Byers
Dylan Byers is a senior media reporter for NBC News based in Los Angeles.
Tags
Who is online
50 visitors
Good. It's about time they faced some consequences for their bullshit.
I don't remember Lou Dobbs being a nut job back when he was on CNN. There must be lead in the water over there at Fox, driving people insane. I recently saw a clip of him damn near crying over the election.
Maria Bartiromo wasn't a nutjob when she was on CNBC, either.
Hal-a-lujah.
I got a kick out of Lou (78) bashing Biden for his age...
It feels like Fox doesn't know how to manage bad ratings.
They do know how to manage bad legal events though....
Lou who?
Something about Trump leaves a dinge on folk. More to come I suspect.
Waiting for the hammer to fall on Pirro and Bartiromo. Kinda sad - Bartiromo used to be reasonable.
Well, with Pirro at least she can work on her alcoholism full time.
It's good to have hobbies to fall back on.
The one I want is Hannity...... He was the leader of WH policy for the last four years.
Lol, did anyone ever listen to him?
You've not been listening to our NT Conservatives have you...? They quote LD chapter & verse at times.
He turned out to be Koo Koo for Ktrumppuffs.
Attach your lips to Trump's ass and you can expect to go down in flames.
I am amazed at how many people do not know this (or foolishly ignored it). Trump has decades of evidence for how he operates. Very strange. I am waiting for Giuliani to start whining about getting stiffed by Trump.
The $2.7 billion dollar lawsuit must have sent the upper echelons of Fox into a tizzy.
The few lawyers they have left are worried, very worried.
All that video evidence is going to be pretty hard to deny.
Then again, creating a false reality is their bread and butter. They've had years of practice.
When Lou showed up for work he was told he was on vacation.
He went home and tweeted about not being sorry of his support for Trump or Stop the Steal.
The Tweet was deleted in less that 2 minutes but not before a handful of people retweeted it.
A second Tweet tried to clarify the first tweet and George Conway thanked them for the evidence,
"that's all Dominion needs". Within seconds the second tweet disappeared.
Not soon enough.
Unless Dominion wants a jury to determine damages, this will probably be settled out of court
and Fox will undergo a dramatic change.
Oh my god... you mean that when a $ is attached to thing businesses all of a sudden get scared?
This is a bit like finding out someone died who you thought was already dead. I would not have guessed he still had a show.
Does this fall under political pastors that cannot be pasteurized need to be relegated to the pasture ... meh, maybe Lou and Chris can have a beautiful friendship.
I'm surprised that Fox took him on in 2011. While he was with CNN he claimed that illegal immigrants caused a surge in leprosy.