Scandals, Blunders & Lawsuits at FOXNEWS, OANN, NewsMax

Is it likely he'll be replaced by Larry Kudlow? (Former CNBC personality before being hired by Trump)

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/larry-kudlow-joins-fox-news-media-as-financial-analyst-will-host-fox-business-network-show

Wonder why he's out at FBN? Conspiracy theories, ratings or simply down to his age? I thought he was successful at the network but don't have any knowledge of how well his show did.

According to CNN, Lou Dobbs was by far the highest rated show on Fox Business.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/05/media/lou-dobbs-fox-show-canceled/index.html

I wonder if, like the sacking of Trish Regan from Fox Business last year after she downplayed COVID-19, this is a token move to deflect attention from other higher profile hosts on Fox News.

I remember Lou Dobbs during his later years on CNN when he veered towards editorialising on air and was railing against the offshoring of American jobs, but on Fox Business the Trump propaganda was off the scale.

Whilst other hosts are Trump-supporting, Dobbs was an all-in 'true believer'. He failed to accept the results of the 2020 election and allowed weeks of unhinged allegations to be aired on his show, and often aired many of them himself. An example is here where he's grilling Devin Nunes, suggesting "just say we're not going to accept the results of this election".

Then when threatened with defamation legal action by Smartmatic (Dobbs alleged their software was used to rig the election), the network forced him to air this weird segement trying to quickly backpeddle and allow them to claim a degree of balance. Note he doesn't present it or make any comment:

The Dobbs segment debunking his own election fraud lies ended without any commentary from Dobbs himself. They just cut to a commercial. pic.twitter.com/eAjwNB7wIh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2020

Looks like it was too little, too late given the new legal challenges. Fox may have calculated getting rid of him before the court case may help them in proceedings. Perhaps they also hope ditching this guy from their secondary network may limit the damage and protect the main FNC opinion hosts.

Also, it's likely Dobbs will forever be stuck in November 2020, which probably doesn't help the future of whatever the format of his show is *meant* to be.

One thing I've not seen in recent weeks and months in all the talk about Fox News, Newsmax and OAN is any pressure on the cable companies not to carry them. Are they generally similarly aligned, locked into lengthy contracts it's not worth risking a lawsuit over cancelling or just hiding behind the usual "freedom of speech" clause used in America to justify the broadcasting of hate and lies?

CNN's Brian Stelter reports advertiser issues led to Fox Business' decision to cancel Lou Dobbs https://t.co/n8S1aRqRPJ

— Jaka Bartolj (@MediaHistoryNow) February 6, 2021

Wow, the network's highest rated show but allegedly not profitable.

You just have to watch a few mins to see why the advertisers would stay away, but still... that's quite a problem!

What is particularly stupid is that they implicated two companies in this - Dominion and Smartmatic, and in some cases mixed the two up and associated them. So they're both taking legal action against the same people/broadcasters.

It seems like the TV outlets have got away with doing retractions for the Dominion action, I wonder if Smartmatic will be as lenient. Their case is even stronger as their involvement in the election was just one city, and not an important one.

It can't be a coincidence that Lou Dobbs was sacked the day after the writ arrived at Fox

Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow.com recently bought airtime on OAN to run a documentary outlining dubious and false claims regarding the election. Here is the disclaimer aired on OAN prior to the start of the programme:

you really need to experience the whole disclaimer in full pic.twitter.com/6gz08PD43h

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) February 5, 2021

Thats what makes OANN and NewsMax even more disgusting is because they feign to be a news networks and hide behind this disclaimers to air a "documentary" with a disclaimer absolving them of anything that's said within it. Hilarious. Im sure their "lawyers" looked at it . But as these lawsuits move forward it will be interesting if the airing of this documentary can speak to the channels intent. Nasty piece of work these people.

The disclaimer should have added "but we take cranks money anyway"

I know it's harder to sue for libel in the States, than here, but he's going to need to sell a lot of pillows by the time Smartmatic and Dominion are through. OANN likely in a lot of trouble also - I don't think you can raelly distance yourself too far from a tape you decided to air!

I know it’s the least of the problems with OAN but even ignoring the frankly sinister tone of their output, from that video and the brief bits I’ve seen of Lindell’s crackpot show that presentation is ghastly, gaudy and I feel like I’ve stepped back in time 25 years (and that’s being harsh on the 90s).

It has the look and feel of the sort of sinister network run by an evil villain that you’d see in a direct-to-video tacky 90s action movie (and Lindell looks the part of a lame 90s villain).