A lawyer hired to represent former Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo issued a statement on Friday slamming “irresponsible” news reports that said the network terminated her employment this week.
The statement came less than 24 hours after a spokesperson at Fox News Media confirmed the network had “parted ways” with Bartiromo, without providing more of an explanation.
By late Thursday, a number of newsletters, including Puck and Status, began reporting unverified details about the circumstances of Bartiromo’s departure: She allegedly shared internal communications about certain editorial decisions at Fox News Media with senior members of the White House, which then called Fox News executives for comment.
The apparent leaks were enough for Fox News Media to put Bartiromo on hiatus while it continued to investigate the matter; by Thursday, her shows at the network were passed on to a rotating panel of anchors, who will continue the programs for the foreseeable future.
The language of the statement — specifically, the part about the network “parting ways” with Bartiromo — is nearly identical to an announcement Fox News Media released after its prime-time host Tucker Carlson was shown the door, based largely on disparaging comments he made about Fox executives and its streaming service Fox Nation.
In Carlson’s case, the decision to release him early had the same effect as a termination of his employment, though he still collected a salary because he was still under contract with the network — a point that was raised when Fox’s legal department took issue with a social media show he launched shortly after his departure.
Fox News Media has declined to comment on the circumstances of Bartiromo’s departure, but multiple sources familiar with the situation characterized reports from Puck and Status as “not wrong.” The New York Times also reported Bartiromo’s departure was the result of her leaking internal messages, which The Desk has not been able to independently confirm.
The reports were enough to draw the ire of Bartiromo’s high-profile attorney, who issued a terse statement on Friday accusing unnamed journalists of passing along erroneous and irresponsible reports about the circumstances of her employment.
“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,” the attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in his statement. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth.”
Notably, Freedman didn’t offer any clarity about the circumstances of her departure, though he certainly could have included those in his statement. Instead, he suggested the matter might be challenged through future litigation — it wasn’t clear if Bartiromo is considering a lawsuit against Fox News Media or against the newsletters that first reported certain alleged details behind her firing.
That Bartiromo and her attorney consider her to still be an employee of Fox News Media is rooted in a technicality: On paper, she continues to be employed by the company. But in practice, she has no show, and won’t be appearing on the network in the future. Bartiromo and Carlson’s situations are similar in many ways — allegations of workplace-related wrongdoing, a break in allegiance with the network and an ultimate decision by Fox News Media to remove them from their channels.
To every ordinary person with common sense, the consequence carries the same effect as a termination — she is not showing up to work every day, even if she is getting paid to sit at home and do nothing until her contract runs out.
Bartiromo clearly feels different, and probably has good reason to: If she remains under contract with Fox News Media, she’s not free to seek employment elsewhere — she can’t pitch herself as a candidate for White House Press Secretary, and she can’t entertain the idea of working for a competing network like Newsmax or NewsNation — unless Fox News Media agrees to release her from her contract early or a court nullifies it.
Still, Freedman’s statement raises a ton of questions: What does it matter that reporters said she was fired, when her dismissal from the network has the same byproduct as a termination? And why was so much effort expended on spinning the narrative about the circumstances of her departure to the point that reporters were attacked for publishing stories that haven’t been proven to be wrong, and almost certainly aren’t?
If Bartiromo has the receipts, as Freedman claims, she bears the burden of providing them to the press in order to correct the record. That she didn’t do it is telling.
