Fox cancels Lou Dobbs as network faces $2.7 Billion lawsuit over ‘election fraud lies’
Pollemix News – February 06, 2021
Conservative broadcaster Fox News announced Friday that they were cancelling ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’, ending the decade long run of the highest rated show on Fox Business. The announcement comes only one day after voting machine company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 Billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, claiming their business was ‘decimated’ by false allegations aired on the network accusing the company of participating in widespread voter fraud.
Lou Dobbs exit is a signal that network executives perceive the lawsuit as a realistic threat to the company and Dobbs ouster looks to be a desperate attempt at damage limitation. The filing stipulates that Smartmatic had identified “100 false statements and implications” made on the network and singles out Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro as the main purveyors of the debunked theory that Smartmatic was “responsible for stealing” the election by “switching and altering votes to rig” the election for Joe Biden. Fox contributors and former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell who frequently appeared on the network to air their voter fraud claims were also named in the lawsuit and are already defending themselves against a similar $1.3 Billion lawsuit filed by voting machine company Dominion.
“With this action, Smartmatic says enough. Facts matter. Truth matters. Defendants engaged in a conspiracy to spread disinformation about Smartmatic. They lied. And they did so knowingly and intentionally. Smartmatic seeks to hold them accountable for those lies and for the damage that their lies have caused,” Smartmatic said in the filing.
Even amongst the ardently pro-Trump Fox News lineup, Lou Dobbs was amongst Trump’s most sycophantic fans with his affections for the former President perhaps only rivaled by Primetime host Sean Hannity.
Following Trump’s defeat, Fox attempted to pivot away from the swirling election fraud conspiracies, however, Dobbs remained staunchly loyal to Trump and his show became the primary conduit for a parade of Trump loyalists to postulate that the election was ‘stolen’ from President Trump. Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who led Trump’s legal challenges to the Biden victory, were ever present guests on the show in the aftermath of the election and repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud with no pushback from the host. In light of the numerous examples of unverified allegations aired on his show, it seems clear Fox News executives have decided to cut ties with Dobbs in the hopes that it will bolster their legal defence.
Critics of Dobbs were quick to sink the boot into the former host whose Trump sycophancy has been widely mocked, with his show repeatedly pilloried for taking on the tone and tenor of North Korean state media with its glowing coverage of the Trump presidency. Washington Post writer Erik Wemple immediately entered the fray tweeting out the news with his followers repeatedly ‘dunking’ on the fired Dobbs:
In one of the craziest media-news Fridays ever, Lou Dobbs’ show on Fox Business has been canceled by the network one day after Smartmatic’s lawsuit citing his mendacious coverage of the November election: https://t.co/otkANLpOv4
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 6, 2021
Dobbs has yet to comment directly on his termination, however, he did retweet a number of conservative commentators lamenting his cancellation including Sebastian Gorka and John Cardillo:
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
Although Fox maintains that Dobbs firing was unrelated to the Smartmatic lawsuit there has been increasing fears amongst the higher ups in the network about their legal vulnerability following the January 06 Capitol Hill riots. Whether Dobbs will be the only host culled by the network in an attempt to stave off potential legal ramifications remains to be seen but if fellow hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeannine Pirro who were also named in the suit face the axe, then it can be reasonably perceived that Fox is genuinely concerned that the litigation against them has the potential to succeed.
The Smartmatic litigation leaves Fox in an unenviable position of trying to ensure their programming does not open them up to further lawsuits, whilst simultaneously placating the fiercely loyal Trump base who demand the network continue to echo the former President’s claim that the election was ‘stolen’ from him. In the aftermath of the election, Fox lost almost 30% of it’s audience to extreme right wing broadcasters Newsmax and OAN after their right wing viewer base deemed the network to be insufficiently loyal to Trump for not unanimously and unequivocaly echoing Trump’s claims of a ‘rigged election’.
Fox now faces the daunting prospect of preventing a huge payout to Smartmatic, whilst also tamping down a potential backlash from their right wing base for axing one of Trump’s most loyal acolytes and Dobbs is unlikely to be the only casualty as they seek to right the ship.
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