Fox News has dropped ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ promoter of Trump’s false election fraud claims

The information was first reported by the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by a Fox spokesperson. Dobbs might be unlikely to return to air, though he nonetheless has a contract with Fox News Media, based on the Times.

The community, nonetheless, mentioned Dobbs’s cancellation had already been within the works.

“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,” a Fox News Media spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail. “A new 5 p.m. program will be announced in the near future.”

Reached through textual content message on Friday evening, Dobbs advised The Washington Post, “Thanks, but I have no comment at this time.”

Smartmatic’s practically 300-page grievance alleges the community and hosts equivalent to Dobbs “decimated” the corporate’s future earnings by falsely accusing it of serving to to rig the election in favor of then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

It cited a number of examples of Dobbs selling baseless claims of voter fraud, together with a Nov. 12 episode by which President Donald’s private lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani claimed that Smartmatic was based by Venezuelans near former dictator Hugo Chávez “in order to fix elections.” Dobbs thanked Giuliani for being “on the case,” which the host mentioned “has the feeling of a coverup in certain places.”

A Fox Business staffer mentioned staff had been stunned by the cancellation and presumed that it was linked to the lawsuit. The particular person spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly. The community has not introduced any adjustments to the reveals of two different hosts named within the grievance: Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro.

Dobbs began his profession in native tv, joined CNN at its inception in 1980 and have become one of the community’s stars, finest identified for internet hosting “Moneyline with Lou Dobbs.” Amid stories of clashes with community executives, he left CNN in 1999 to start the astronomy news website Space.com.

He finally returned to CNN however left once more in 2009 as hard-line views on immigration grew to become an even bigger half of his persona. He was an early proponent of the “birther” conspiracy concept, which falsely held that President Barack Obama had not been born within the United States and was thus ineligible for the position.

Dobbs landed on Fox Business in 2010, and through the years grew to become must-watch TV for Trump.

The two males spoke recurrently, typically each day, The Post reported in 2019, and Dobbs’s views on immigration influenced the president’s insurance policies. He was amongst a cohort of Fox personalities who grew to become one thing of a shadow Cabinet for Trump. During an annual get-together with the Council of Economic Advisers in 2019, Trump positioned a name to Dobbs to seek the advice of him, a lot to the shock of the attendees.

Even earlier than he started peddling election fraud claims, Dobbs was a dependable cheerleader for Trump’s reelection efforts. A pal of Dobbs advised The Post in 2019 that the host was conscious his program had was “Trump 2020 TV” however “doesn’t care. He’s at the end of his career, and he’s going to do what he wants to do.”

Trump responded to the information of the cancellation in an announcement Friday night: “Lou Dobbs is and was great. Nobody loves America more than Lou. He had a large and loyal following that will be watching closely for his next move, and that following includes me.”

Dobbs’s departure from the air comes as Fox is grappling with an identification disaster following Trump’s departure from workplace. Trump elevated the community throughout his presidency by citing the community’s hosts and programming continuously from his Twitter account, and in Cabinet conferences.

Fox News has already made a number of different vital programming adjustments for the reason that election: It has eliminated Martha MacCallum from internet hosting her common 7 p.m. information present and changed her with a rotating solid of opinion hosts together with Fox Business host Bartiromo, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade, and former congressman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). The community additionally jettisoned two key members of its election evening choice desk — politics editor Chris Stirewalt and a senior vice chairman and Washington managing editor, Bill Sammon.

Last month, Fox introduced it had employed Larry Kudlow, former director of the National Economic Council, to host a each day present on Fox Business. Before becoming a member of the Trump administration, Kudlow hosted a present on Fox Business rival CNBC.

“Lou Dobbs Tonight” drew a median 305,000 each day viewers in 2020. Starting Monday, the community plans to begin airing an interim present known as “Fox Business Tonight,” with a rotating pair of hosts: Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman.

Jeremy Barr and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.