Fox News host Maria Bartiromo stands out—and not in a good way—in the lawsuit over Fox’s hyping of conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems having helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump. It’s hard to stand out in legal filings that have some of Fox News’ biggest names texting each other about how “Sidney Powell is a bit nuts” even as the network continued to air Powell’s lies. Or Rupert Murdoch texting the CEO of Fox News Media, following Jan. 6, “All very well for Sean [Hannity] to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?” But Bartiromo does stand out.
According to two lawsuits filed by Abby Grossberg, a producer for Bartiromo’s show, though, Grossberg and Bartiromo are being set up as scapegoats by a grossly sexist network. Grossbert claims that Bartiromo’s show did not have the staff needed to adequately vet claims about election fraud. She also alleges that Fox News lawyers coached her in her testimony for the Dominion case in ways that set her up to look bad while protecting prominent men at the network, and that ongoing discrimination against her as a woman conditioned her to be fearful of their judgment if she was too forthcoming in her answers. Fox News is responding that Grossberg is a disgruntled employee who started complaining after a bad performance review.
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In addition to her claims about the Dominion lawsuit, Grossberg alleges appalling levels of misogyny and bigotry from the staff of Tucker Carlson’s show, which she also worked on. She says she was questioned on whether Bartiromo was having an affair with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, and heard slurs about women and jokes about Jewish people. This is extremely believable stuff, and Grossberg claims she was retaliated against for complaining about being harassed as a Jewish woman.
That Fox News would decide to throw Bartiromo and her producer under the bus is also believable enough—and according to Grossberg, Fox executives described Bartiromo as a “crazy bitch.” But there is no staffing level inadequate enough to explain some of what Bartiromo did.
Bartiromo featured Sidney Powell as a guest on her show at the recommendation of an email from a random woman with absolutely no qualifications who said in the email that she had been “internally decapitated” during a car accident and “The Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it.” Also, she said, Justice Antonin Scalia did not die in his sleep but while being hunted for sport.
Bartiromo herself texted Steve Bannon, “I want to see massive fraud exposed … I told my team we are not allowed to say pres elect at [all]. Not in scripts or in banners on air. Until this moves through the courts.”
In another text exchange included in Dominion’s court filings, Bartiromo asked Grossberg if she should have pushed Trump harder on whether he would participate in the peaceful transition of power. Grossberg responded, “To be honest, our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful transition.” If Fox News was trying to make them the scapegoats, it didn’t have to work too hard—though it’s also the case that it had plenty of other choices for scapegoats given that Dominion’s filings reveal just about everyone significant at Fox News saying something damaging.
Additionally, if one of Grossberg’s claims about how she was pressured to answer differently than she would have wished to do is accurate, it’s a mystifying piece of lawyering from Fox’s attorneys:
During her deposition, Ms. Grossberg was asked if she cared whether claims made on Ms. Bartiromo’s show were true or false. According to the transcript, Ms. Grossberg answered: “No. Because we didn’t know if they were true or false at that time.” When asked if she felt it was important to correct a false claim made on the air, Ms. Grossberg answered: “No.”
In her lawsuits, Ms. Grossberg said she would have answered those questions differently but had been “coached by and intimidated by” Fox’s lawyers.
“We’re going to get out of this lawsuit by highlighting that Fox News employed producers who don’t care about accuracy” would be a heckuva decision, even with the ultimate intent of trying to put it all on Bartiromo and Grossberg—especially since Fox didn’t appear to have a problem with Grossberg’s work when she was made head of booking for Tucker Carlson, the network’s current flagship show.
Dominion has already amply shown that election denial lies, including ones that specifically harmed Dominion, were not restricted to one show or one personality or producer at Fox News. Here’s Rupert Murdoch being questioned for the lawsuit:
Attorney: In fact, you are now aware that Fox endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election?
Murdoch: Not Fox, No. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria, as commentators.
Attorney: We went through Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo, yes?
Murdoch: Yes. C'mon—
Attorney: Fox host Jeanine Pirro?
Murdoch: I think so.
Attorney: Fox Business host Lou Dobbs?
Murdoch: Oh, a lot.
Attorney: Fox host Sean Hannity?
Murdoch: A bit
Attorney: All were in that document; correct?
Murdoch: Yes, they were.
Attorney: About Fox endorsing the narrative of a stolen election; correct?
Murdoch: No. Some of our commentators were endorsing it.
Attorney: About their endorsement of a stolen election?
Murdoch: Yes. They endorsed.
Murdoch’s position is that those people as individual commentators were saying the election was stolen—but there are too many of them listed right there to give Fox News as a network and company any plausible deniability.
Grossberg’s lawsuit amplifies what we know—thanks to numerous lawsuits over the years—about the disgustingly sexist atmosphere at Fox News. It also provides context for how decisions were made internally at the time the network was airing lies about Dominion, and for how Fox’s lawyers handled depositions. What it does not do is offer a hero in this story. Grossberg wasn’t standing up for truth—she was trying to succeed within the Fox News system.
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