How do you solve a problem like Maria Bartiromo?

Fox News executives may be asking that question as she emerges as a central figure in Dominion Voting System

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S

‘

$1.6

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billion defamation suit against the conservative news network.

Declassified court documents and testimonies related to the case quoted Bartiromo throughout

for allowing former President Trump’s false claims of 2020 election fraud to be broadcast on the network in an effort to deter angry viewers from leaving the network.

Falsehoods such as the claim that the Denver-based voting machine maker in Venezuela was set up to help Hugo Chévez and that its software rigged votes to favor President Biden remained unchallenged on the network in the weeks following the election, despite evidence to the contrary. contrary . Court testimony shows that in the days leading up to and after the 2020 election, colleagues and executives questioned Bartiromo’s online activities and expressed concern that she was being influenced by right-wing conspiracy theorists.

Bartiromo’s texts, which surfaced in court documents released Tuesday, said she was “depressed” about the results of the election the president won

joe

Biden and hoped to see fraud uncovered that would reverse the outcome.

“I want to see massive fraud exposed. Will (Trump) be able to turn this around. I told my team not to say president. Not in scripts. Bartiromo said in a text message to the disgraced Trump adviser Steve Bannon

who was convicted in July of contempt for ignoring a congressional subpoena of the House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol

.

“You are our fighter. Enough with the grief. We need you,” replied Bannon, who then urged Bartiromo

Unpleasant

running for the US Senate seat held by Charles

E

Schumer from New York.

on Nov

.ember

On February 5, 2020, two days after the election, Washington anchor Bret Baier warned Jay Wallace, who oversees newsgathering at Fox News, that Bartiromo had made false claims about the election.

Gary Schreier, a producer who has worked with Bartiromo since 2012, told his bosses that Bartiromo was influenced by Trump’s most extreme supporters.

“The problem is she has (GOP) conspiracy theorists in her ear and sometimes they use her for their message,” Schreier said in a text to Lauren Petterson, who oversees Fox Business Network.

That same day, Wallace was told that Bartiromo was sharing conspiracy theories about Dominion on the right-wing social media site Parler, to which he responded.

,

I don’t know why she invites this.

When Schreier flagged a Bartiromo tweet espousing conspiracy theories for Petterson, she suggested Bartiromo should get off social media [media] all together. Schreier agreed, noting that Bartiromo had a say[ing] crazy st online.

In his statement, Schreier said his comments were made out of concern that Bartiromo strayed too far from financial news and that coverage of divisive political issues would scare advertisers away from her program.

Dominion claims that Fox News acted maliciously by recklessly ignoring the truth when it presented the allegations

against the company

which stirred up the emotions that led to Trump supporters storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Fox News claims its reporting and commentary was protected by the First Amendment because allegations of a sitting president are newsworthy, even if they are false.

Bartiromo is one of four Fox News and Fox Business Network personalities named in the lawsuit, along with Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs, who is no longer part of the company. Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted under oath that they were all propagating false claims about the 2020 election, which he said were fair.

But the difference with Bartiromo is that she identifies as a news anchor, as she stated in her

. That’s what she said in her statement

testimony.

Hannity, Dobbs and Pirro are considered opinion leaders, and Fox News executives have tested whether they are held to the same journalistic standards as mainstream news programs.

Schreier said opinion shows on Fox News are under no obligation to correct falsehoods in their programs. Another Fox News executive, David Clark, told the court that Hannity is the network’s tallest

–

running prime

–

time star is not a credible news source.

Bartiromo, 55, came to Fox News with a great background as a tireless financial journalist who spent more than 20 years at CNBC. A respected pioneer, she was the first woman to report from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She joined Fox News in 2013 for an annual salary of $5 million.

Bartiromo is on the air 15 hours a week on the Fox Business Network as the host of “Mornings with Maria” and has the highest

–

rated Sunday morning program on Fox News with “Sunday Morning Futures.”

The anchor Bariromo

usually spoke to CEOs on her corporate programs, but became more political after moving to Fox News. Her conservative views became clearer

,

and is said to be loved by

Rupert

Murdoch

Bartiromo did not respond to a request for comment.

Before a hearing Tuesday, Fox News lawyers presented new emails to show that Bartiromo did not act maliciously because she did

not

know whether allegations made by attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani on Fox News were true or false and whether they

personally held genuine doubts had doubts

on the legitimacy of the 2020 elections.

Court documents presented by Fox News include comments made Dec. 12

cinder,

Email from 2020 by Nicole Beckman, then employed at Dominion’s public relations firm, Hamilton Place Strategies. Beckman said Bartiromo “has made no statements strongly advocating defamation because she is always careful about citing other people (‘an issued report says…’) or not specifically mentioning Dominion. She refrains from doing so. her guests to make defamatory claims.”

Bartiromo testified that no one in management did anything to stop her or force her to correct the record. As Bartiromo spent time on the story, top executives, reporters, and even Fox News stars like Tucker Carlson and Dana Perino privately said Trump’s claims were bogus and questioned the sanity of Powell and Giuliani.

Carlson, the most popular and outspoken bearer of the conservative torch at Fox News, was particularly eager to continue with Trump, saying in one text, “I hate him passionately.”

Much of the testimony related to Bartiromo focuses on the performances of Powell and Giuliani. The duo gained a platform for the “Sunday Morning Futures” audience of nearly 2 million viewers per week, where they amplified Trump’s bogus election claims.

Bartiromo made false statements himself, such as repeating false claims that Dominion

‘s

was owned by voting software company Smartmatic, which is also suing Fox News and other conservative networks for libel.

in her statement,

testimony,

Bartiromo claimed she still doesn’t know if the many allegations against Dominion on her show were true or false.

she

said

she repeatedly asked Powell and Giuliani when they would provide evidence to support their claims

She said she and

stopped having them on after they ran out.

But several Fox News executives agreed in their testimony with Dominion’s claims that Bartiromo did not dispute any of Powell’s false statements when she appeared on “Sunday Morning Futures.” Bartiromo also admitted that she never provided any evidence to refute Powell’s claims, even though she got the correct information from Dominion and other Fox News journalists.

There were also acknowledgments that fact-finding is not the mission of ‘Sunday Morning Futures’.

Abby Grossberg, Bartiromo’s senior booking producer at the time, was asked in court if she believed “Sunday Morning Futures” had an obligation to correct false information presented by its guests. Her answer was “no”, a startling admission

,

as Sunday morning political shows are traditionally where viewers expect government officials to be held accountable.

Bartiromo tested that too

didn’t

feeling

she needed a commitment

to independently investigate claims made by its guests before making them.

While it can be challenging to correct guests in real time, Dominion argued that Fox News could have removed misinformation for reruns. But the programs repeated unchanged.

On Tuesday, Fox News lawyers tried to soften the evidence against the network and Bartiromo through emails between the anchor and Tony Fratto, another Hamilton Place Strategies executive and a former George W. Bush administration spokesman, at court. to submit.

Fratto, who had a cordial relationship with Bartiromo, sent a message after her interview

of

Giuliani.

“What Rudy says is demonstrably false, and the same goes for Sidney Powell. It’s a tinfoil conspiracy,” Fratto said. “And I think they need a strong pushback with facts. I’m not saying ignore the story, but Rudy is literally making things up as he goes.”

An email reply from Bartiromo asked, Are you telling me not to cover a sitting president contesting a presidential election? Should I just call it off and go along with the rest of the media. . . ?

I’m not saying ignore the story. . .,” Fratto said.

Bartiromo offered to have Dominion’s CEO on her show and read out a lengthy statement from the company on November 20

2020,

show.

Fratto’s testimony said his attempt to get Bartiromo to stop booking Giuliani and Powell had no bearing.

He later wrote to

jay

Wallace, hoping to disgrace the network by comparing it to its upstart competitor Newsmax.

A Fox News lawsuit said that the fact that some people in the organization rejected Trump’s claims did not mean that those who did believe them were acting maliciously in presenting them.

It is hardly unusual for some people in a newsroom (with the different political views one would expect) to disbelieve the allegations and hope they will eventually prove false, while others will be open to them hoping they will prove true to be.