Maria Bartiromo was brought to Fox to cover the ins and outs of Wall Street, and make the company a bigger presence in the world of business-news cable. But her growing interest in punditry and opinion left Fox increasingly uncovered before the law.
And that constant back-and-forth likely caused something of which a financial reporter is very aware: Her stock at Fox began to drop. She has not been on the air since August 9.
In June, Bartiromo read an apology on air after entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary appeared on one of her shows a month earlier and made the false accusation that detractors of a data center he wanted to build in Utah were being funded by China. For executives at Fox News Media, it may have been the second-to-last straw.
Bartiromo is believed to have passed along a directive issued to executive producers at Fox Business Network to the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter, and those instructions may have cautioned Fox Business staffers against support to outlandish claims made by President Donald Trump in public remarks. Divulging confidential company information to an outside party would likely be seen as a violation of terms of employment.
