UPDATE: Three weeks after news correspondent Matt Gutman was named in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former ABC field producer, Gutman, now a chief correspondent with CBS News, is being dropped from the legal action.
In paperwork filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, lawyers for the ex-ABC producer Samaira Said requested that Gutman, who previously worked alongside Said at ABC, be dismissed from her complaint. No reason was given in the court document as to why the request to drop Gutman is being made.
Said filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court last month, naming as defendants ABC, The Walt Disney Co., Gutman and David Herndon, who had worked as Los Angeles bureau chief. Among other things, she claimed wrongful termination, discrimination, hostile work environment harassment and retaliation for engaging in protected activity. The suit had said Gutman made demeaning statements about Said that “reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.” Said also is seeking to drop Herndon from the complaint.
PREVIOUS, August 16: A former ABC News field producer filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the network, including allegations that her former colleague Matt Gutman, now chief correspondent with CBS News, made inappropriate sexualized remarks when they worked together.
Samira Said filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday. The lawsuit names as defendants ABC, The Walt Disney Co., Gutman and David Herndon, who had worked as Los Angeles bureau chief. Among other things, she claimed wrongful termination, discrimination, hostile work environment harassment and retaliation for engaging in protected activity.
Said claimed that she was terminated after being denied accommodations for mental health issues. She was being treated by a psychiatrist, including for depression, and her provider advised her to reduce her workload to protect her health.
Her lawsuit made a number of claims of adverse employment actions. Said alleged that in one incident during her employment, she was placed on a male-only team that included Gutman, an on-air correspondent, and two crew members.
According to the complaint, “While the team waited in a public queue during the assignment, Gutman initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent’s appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes. The male crew joined in, continuing to assess the woman’s body and looks in Said’s presence. The men attempted to draw Said into the conversation by soliciting her views. Said declined and stated the conversation was inappropriate.”
In another incident, per the lawsuit, she and Gutman were at a press day related to a film release, and they disagreed on whether the team should leave the work site. According to the lawsuit, “In front of multiple coworkers, Gutman responded by making a sexualized insinuation that Said must have an after-hours date in the city and that this is why she did not want to relocate. The remark, made audibly to others, demeaned Said and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.”
CBS News and ABC News have not commented on the litigation.
Gutman joined CBS News earlier this year, after a long tenure at ABC, where he served as chief national correspondent.
According to the lawsuit, after experiencing Covid and covering the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Said was approved for medical leave for two weeks in August, 2022, but “fearing that her employment would be terminated if she remained out too long, Said felt compelled to rush her medical leave and to communicate an expedited return.”
For the rest of the year, her psychiatrist continued to certify the medical necessity of her leave on a recurring basis, and the following January cleared her to return to work subject to reasonable accommodations “designed to enable her to perform the essential functions of the position while protecting against re-exposure to trauma triggers,” per the lawsuit.
Said claimed that HR personnel presented her with an “ultimatum to either return to work without any accommodations, or not to return at all.” Said eventually withdrew her accommodation requests because she was “effectively deterred from doing so” by the defendants “prior course of conduct.”
The lawsuit claimed that she was demoted to weekend desk shifts and, although she was told the assignment was temporary until a replacement was hired, no person was.
In early 2025, Said was assigned to cover the Los Angeles wildfires and additional weather events, according to the suit, and while in the field sustained a bone contusion when a piece of heavy equipment struck her foot. A Disney physician examined her and determined that she was not required to take leave, per the suit.
The lawsuit claimed that ABC News Vice President Katie DenDaas met with her and emphasized that she was one of the news division’s best performers, but she was terminated some days later, on March 5, 2025.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, attorneys fees and costs and declaratory relief.
Target uses a Bluetooth device on its baskets that tracks shoppers in store.
Rating:
Context
Some Target baskets carry a Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon that transmits its location to “smart” lights in the store. The lights can interact with the beacons and Target’s app to find a shopper’s location, help them navigate around a store or send location-specific offers. Because the basket-mounted beacons transmit only locations and do not collect information about the shopper, it is technically Target’s app that tracks shoppers, not the beacons.
In August and September 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that the retailer Target used a Bluetooth device on its baskets that tracked shoppers in store.
The claim came from an Aug. 29 TikTok video in which a person who appeared to be a Target employee claimed the retailer fitted its baskets with trackers that followed shoppers throughout the store.
The alleged employee said:
Hello, I just want to make a PSA: You are now being tracked at Target. These baskets, this thing, that’s a tracker, so they’re now tracking shoppers at Target, at your local Target, for, supposedly, “consumer habits.”
In short, Target does track shopper locations using the basket-mounted Bluetooth beacon that the TikTok user showed in their video. The beacon transmits its location to Target’s “smart” overhead LED lights, which in turn can communicate location information to its app.
Acuity Brands, which Target said supplied its LED lights, explained in a news release in 2017 that by using its lights and beacons attached to items such as shopping carts it could deliver “highly accurate, real-time positioning services for customers” through a retailer’s app. Acuity Brands said Target renewed a multiyear deal for products including its indoor location services in 2020.
According to its privacy policy, Target still used LED light and Bluetooth technology to track shoppers in-store in August 2026. The policy advised that customers who did not want to share their store location data could disable location sharing on their device or in the Target app.
We contacted Target to confirm how it collected and used data about customers in store using Bluetooth beacons, as well as how customers could opt out of tracking. We await a reply to our query.
What we know about Target tracking
The TikTok user who shared the video about Target’s basket-mounted beacons on Aug. 29 shared another video (archived) the day after, identifying the exact product Target used to track shoppers as a Bluetooth beacon from Acuity Brands. A Reddit user who posted (archived) about the device six months earlier showed a device with the same FCC ID as the one the TikTok user identified.
The Federal Communications Commission grants FCC IDs to products that meet the necessary regulatory standards for wireless communication.
The product’s user manual said it is a Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon that “communicates its position to Atrius Assets,” the software that Target has used since at least 2020 for indoor location services.
Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons are small devices that send out radio signals that can be picked up by nearby devices. Beacons can only transmit — not receive — data, so they generally rely on apps to interpret and use the data they are sending.
In terms of tracking, if many beacons are sending their location, a device can interpret those signals and triangulate the location of an individual beacon, or individual shopper holding a basket fitted with a beacon. Target wrote in its news release in 2019 that its lights interacted with its app to find customer locations, suggesting that the basket-mounted beacons sent their signals to the lights.
It was unclear from the available information whether Target used the data it gathered about individual shoppers’ routes through their stores beyond providing location-based offers through the app or guiding customers to specific products.
Target used Bluetooth beacons since at least 2015
The technology publication TechCrunch reported that Target and other retailers have used beacon technology to track shoppers in store and send them location-based offers since at least 2015 and that the retailer added Bluetooth beacon-driven indoor mapping to its app in 2017.
Target appeared to still use this technology in 2026. Itsprivacy policy in August 2026 said Target might use location information shared by customers’ phones to “help you find nearby Target stores; or, in-store location through the use of your phone’s blue tooth signal, LED light chip technologies or other technologies will permit Target to find nearby products for you, get you real-time deals, auto-sort your shopping list and more.”
Target said in its privacy policy that shoppers who wished to opt out of sharing their in-store location could prevent their devices from sharing their location with Target “by adjusting the permissions on your mobile device or within the relevant app.”
It did not appear from the beacon’s manual that shoppers could turn the device off themselves, meaning Target would still collect information about where the basket traveled if a shopper used it, but could not connect that data to a specific phone or customer if the device’s owner turned off location sharing or did not use the Target app.
For further reading, Snopes has previously investigated a number of rumors about Target.
Sources
Acuity Brands, Inc. Demonstrates Retail Indoor Positioning System Solution with New Asset Tracking Technology at Shoptalk 2017 | Acuity Inc. https://www.investors.acuitybrands.com/news-releases/news-release-details/acuity-brands-inc-demonstrates-retail-indoor-positioning-system. Accessed 3 Sept. 2026.
Akpinar, Ege. Bluetooth Beacons: Everything You Need to Know. 8 July 2023, https://www.pointr.tech/blog/beacons-everything-you-need-to-know.
‘ATG2 Asset Tag User Manual – FCC ID 2ADCB-ATG2’. FCC ID, https://fccid.io/2ADCB-ATG2/User-Manual/User-Manual-4729214#google_vignette.
Perez, Sarah. ‘Target Launches Beacon Test In 50 Stores, Will Expand Nationwide Later This Year’. TechCrunch, 5 Aug. 2015, https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/05/target-launches-beacon-test-in-50-stores-with-expanded-rollout-later-this-year/.
———. ‘Target Rolls out Bluetooth Beacon Technology in Stores to Power New Indoor Maps in Its App’. TechCrunch, 20 Sept. 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/target-rolls-out-bluetooth-beacon-technology-in-stores-to-power-new-indoor-maps-in-its-app/.
Why Is FCC ID Important? | Lenovo UK. https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/glossary/fcc-id/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2026.
Why Target Stores Flipped the Switch to These Energy-Saving Lights. https://corporate.target.com/news-features/article/2019/04/led-lights. Accessed 3 Sept. 2026.
A meme accurately cites facts and fundraising figures in comparing prosecutors charging Lindsay Clancy with killing her three children, with Clancy receiving more than $1 million in fundraising, and the story of Emma Schols sustaining severe burns while rescuing her six children from a house fire, then receiving only $42,000 in fundraising.
Rating:
What’s True
The meme provides some factual information about both stories and, as of this writing, an accurate GoFundMe tally of donations earmarked to defray Clancy’s parents’ travel and housing costs as they attended the trial. Also, it’s true that a Swedish news outlet reported that a church deacon in that country organized a fundraiser equaling, at current currency conversion rates, about $42,000. However …
What’s False
… the meme omits additional fundraisers and sponsors who pledged to help rebuild Schols’ home, according to information found in the same Swedish news outlet mentioned above and her 2022 book.
In late August and early September 2026, people shared a meme comparing the alleged stories of two mothers.
Emma Schols’ story of heroism, which involved saving her six children from a house fire and sustaining severe burns in the process, appears on the meme’s left side, with a fundraising figure of $42,000.
The right side features Lindsay Clancy, the mother at the center of a highly-publicized Massachusetts murder trial — which ended in a mistrial Sept. 4 — in which prosecutors charged her with killing her three young children, along with a purported GoFundMe fundraising figure exceeding $1 million.
X user @CodyManners2 posted (archived) the meme, which reads under photos of Schols: “Mother pulls all 6 of her children out of raging house fire, going back in three times despite burns covering 93% of her body. Money raised: $42,000.” Clancy’s caption reads: “Mother kills all 3 of her children by strangling them to death with exercise bands. Claims she is victim. GoFundMe: $1,044,318+.”
In sum, Schols’ book and news media outlets’ reporting confirm the meme features a few specific facts but also omits key information. For these reasons, we have rated the meme’s content as a mixture of true and false information.
Snopes emailed Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s attorney, and Schols to request comment. A reverse image search found no posts displaying the meme older than X user @CodyManners2’s post. We reached out to that user to ask whether they created the meme and will update this article if we receive further information.
Breaking down the Schols-Clancy meme
Schols, who lives in Sweden, saved all six of her children in a Sept. 3, 2019, house fire, taking three trips to remove all of them from the inferno. Her 2022 coauthored book, “Ärren bär jag med stolthet: branden i Edsbyn och livet efteråt,” which translates to “I Carry the Scars with Pride: The Fire in Edsbyn and Life Afterwards,” tells her harrowing story, including the fact that 93% of her body sustained burns, as the meme claims.
In September 2019, Swedish news media outlet SVT, quoting church deacon Christer Schwartz, reported Schols’ fundraising total at 400,000 Swedish krona, or at current exchange rates about $42,000. According to that report, Schwartz’s fundraiser was one of several on Schols’ behalf but no other figures were reported.
On top of Schwartz’s and other fundraisers, a February 2020 charity hockey match reportedly collected an additional 200,000 Swedish krona ($21,000). Schols says in her book that people and companies also initially pledged to sponsor the rebuilding of her house, though she adds some of those sponsors pulled out after she separated from her partner.
As for Clancy, The Associated Press, Reuters and other outlets reported she admitted strangling her children with exercise bands on Jan. 24, 2023, and pleaded not guilty to her initial charges, which included three counts each of first-degree murder, strangulation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors later dropped the strangulation charges, saying they were redundant to the murder charges.
The organizer of the Clancy case GoFundMe (archived), titled “The Musgrove Family Fund,” described the purported recipients of the fundraiser as Clancy’s parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, citing their hotel, travel and relocation costs to stay close to their daughter over more than three years. The in-question meme does not mention Clancy’s parents, instead making the allegation that Clancy herself will one day collect the funds. At last check, the fundraiser had grown to more than $1.1 million with a goal of $2 million, bringing in more than 33,500 individual donations.
The meme adds that Clancy has claimed she’s the victim. During her criminal trial in summer 2026, Reddington, her attorney, said “there is evidence of lack of criminal responsibility” and suggested “a required finding of not guilty should be entered on the case.” He repeatedly argued Clancy suffered from postpartum psychosis, a disorder an estimated one or two in 1,000 women experience after giving birth that can include delusions, depression, hallucinations, insomnia, paranoia and other changes in behavior. Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued she knew what she was doing.
Schols’ harrowing rescue story
On Sept. 3, 2019, Schols awoke before 6 a.m. in her home to early-morning light shining through her window, with the faint memory of minutes earlier hearing some of her children playing in another room.
In Schols’ book, which we translated to English, she said her then-partner, Anders, was working a night shift, leaving her to sleep alone. She wrote of the morning, “Great, I think, now I have a few minutes to lie down and catch up before I have to start my morning routine.”
Moments later, the book recounts, she felt a very different sense of “fear, panic and desperation” when one of her children screamed from downstairs, “Help, mom, there’s a fire. There’s a fire in the TV room!”
She wrote, “To make sure all the children have woken up, I scream at the top of my lungs: ‘Everyone has to get out of the house!’”
In the minutes that followed, Schols first managed to guide her young children Albin and Oliwer out the front door, then looked for William, Melwyn and Nellie. After seeing William and showing Melwyn to safety, she made it to her youngest child, Mollie, who was standing in her crib with a full diaper.
Schols became unable to move from the flames covering her body. She wrote, “If I have managed to give birth to six children, I will swear to get six children out of this burning house,” and that she gathered strength, picked up Mollie and looked to escape. She described William as positioning a ladder they happened to have left out from a long-neglected painting job as their method of escape from the balcony.
Once outside, Schols described hearing her dog, Sally, inside making noises and thinking of her cat as well. A neighbor, seeing burns all over Schols’ body, told her it was too late to save her pets.
Several Swedish outlets publishednews of the fire on the same day.
Following extensive hospital stays for her burns and a period of rehabilitation, Schols returned home.
In her book, Schols wrote of Schwartz, the deacon, organizing the fundraiser following the fire. A Facebook post from days after the incident mentions Schwartz by name.
Schols said locals helped find clothes for her children, writing, “I am struck by the incredible care that exists in our country.” Other examples of that care included “Playing for Emma,” a charity hockey match organized in Schols’ honor in February 2020. Schols wrote about the match, as well as her family’s home insurance situation at the time of the fire:
On Sunday, February 2nd, a tribute match will be held for me, where the money raised will go to help me and my family get back on their feet. For all the years we have had home insurance, but just a month or so before the accident, we had, due to our financial situation, fallen behind on that particular bill. This fact is something I am ashamed of today. As I have been mulling this question over here in the hospital. This very month, when the house burns down, we were forced to skip that bill. What are the odds of that?
Later in December 2020, the Swedish Heroes Gala awarded Schols the title “Lifesaver of the Year.”
Near the end of her book, Schols wrote that some companies and people sponsoring the rebuilding of their former home pulled out after she and Anders separated.
To close her book, Schols thanked numerous locals and medical personnel, as well as her family, former partner and friends, saving a message for her children for last:
My biggest thanks go to William, Nellie, Melwin, Albin, Oliwer and Mollie. I may have saved your lives, but you are the absolute biggest heroes in this whole story. You are my everything and I love you with all my heart.
Barry, Ellen. “A Troubled Mother Faces Murder Charges in Her Young Children’s Deaths.” The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/health/lindsay-clancy-child-murder-charges-massachusetts.html.
Bergström, Marie. “Så mycket samlades in under Playing for Emma: ‘Känns fantastiskt att kunna göra något.’” Söderhamns-Kuriren, 29 Mar. 2020, https://www.soderhamnskuriren.se/halsingland/sa-mycket-samlades-in-under-playing-for-emma-kanns-fantastiskt-att-kunna-gora-nagot/.
Casey, Michael, and Jennifer Peltz. “What to Know about the Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial.” The Associated Press, 27 Aug. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-what-to-know-775003a75689cfde13750257849187ae.
“Children in Sweden.” Sweden.Se, 9 July 2026, https://sweden.se/life/society/children-in-sweden.
Cruz, Timothy J. “Duxbury Woman Arraigned in Murder of Her Three Children.” Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, Plymouth County Office of the District Attorney, 7 Feb. 2023, https://plymouthda.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DuxburyARR2.7.23.pdf.
Eriksson, Jan-Peter, and Emma Åhlström. “Dramatisk Räddning När Mamma Fick Ut Sina Sex Barn Ur Brinnande Villa i Edsbyn.” SVT Nyheter, 3 Sept. 2019, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/gavleborg/brand-i-villa-i-edsbyn-pa-morgonen. Gävleborg.
Fagerström, John. “Mamma räddade sina sex barn från villabrand – blev svårt brännskadad.” Aftonbladet, 3 Sept. 2019, https://www.aftonbladet.se/a/zGbobb.
Kammerland, Erik. “Insamlingen till Edsbyfamiljen Förlängs – 400 000 Kronor Har Skänkts Hittills.” SVT Nyheter, 19 Sept. 2019, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/gavleborg/insamlingen-ar-uppe-i-400-000-kronor-till-edsbyfamiljen. Gävleborg.
Khan, Melina. “What Could Happen to Lindsay Clancy after Trial Verdict.” USA TODAY, 24 Aug. 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2026/08/24/lindsay-clancy-verdict-what-happens-next/91382978007/.
Öhagen, Angelica. “Sexbarnsmamman Är Årets Livräddare: “Nu Känner de Igen Mig”.” Aftonbladet, 17 Dec. 2020, https://www.aftonbladet.se/a/2dvlV4.
Raymond, Nate. “Family Says Massachusetts Mother Who Killed Children Struggled with Mental Illness.” Reuters, 17 Aug. 2026, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/massachusetts-woman-searched-online-postpartum-psychosis-days-before-killing-2026-08-17/.
Rev.Com. https://www.rev.com.
Schols, Emma, and Frida Funemyr. Ärren bär jag med stolthet: Branden i Edsbyn och livet efteråt. Norstedts, 2022. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/%C3%84rren_b%C3%A4r_jag_med_stolthet/cNMRzwEACAAJ.
“TV: Se höjdpunkterna från galan Playing for Emma – allt det bästa på under 15 minuter.” Hudiksvalls Tidning, 4 Feb. 2020, https://www.ht.se/halsingland/tv-se-hojdpunkterna-fran-galan-playing-for-emma-allt-det-basta-pa-under-15-minuter/.
Ungar, Laura. “What to Know about Postpartum Psychosis, Which Can Affect a New Mom’s Sense of Reality.” The Associated Press, 28 July 2026, https://apnews.com/article/postpartum-psychosis-baby-blues-e1dd28bee97a984f3d58132c4fbd2e28.
Yee, Curtis. “As It Happened: Deliberations in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial End for the Day without a Verdict.” The Associated Press, 27 Aug. 2026, https://apnews.com/live/lindsay-clancy-trial-08-27-2026.
———. “Live Updates: Mistrial Is Declared in Lindsay Clancy Child Killings Case after Jury Deadlocks.” The Associated Press, 4 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/live/lindsay-clancy-trial-09-04-2026.
In early September 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to change the name of New Mexico to “New America.”
Rating:
A claim that federal officials approved a plan to change the name of the state of New Mexico to “New America” spread online, with one popular post going so far as to claim U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order changing the state’s name in early September 2026.
The claim emerged following a real order Trump signed Aug. 27, 2026, to change Lake Ontario to “Lake America” in the United States.
X user @DailyNoud shared the claim on Sept. 1 that New Mexico’s name also would be changed (archived), writing: “Donald Trump has signed an executive order to change the name of New Mexico to New America.” The post received more than 2.7 million views, as of this writing:
Variations of the claim also spread on Instagram, Threads and Facebook. Some people seemed to interpret it as true, and Snopes readers contacted us in search of more information.
To investigate the claims legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Bing. If officials in Trump’s administration had really approved plans to change the state’s name — or if Trump had signed any such executive order — these searches would have uncovered such evidence.
That was not the case. We did not find any credible reporting about an official move to change the name of New Mexico.
We identified the claim’s original source: satirical social media account Casper Planet, which describes its output as “Snews that doesn’t matter.” This post didn’t explicitly say Trump signed an executive order, rather — it claimed that “federal officials have reportedly approved plans to rename the state of New Mexico to New America.” (X user @DailyNoud also was a satire account.)
New Mexico To Be Renamed New America Following Federal Geographic Naming Changes
WASHINGTON – Federal officials have reportedly approved plans to rename the state of New Mexico to New America, continuing a recent effort to update geographic names across the country.
According to officials familiar with the change, the word “Mexico” was identified during a routine review of American maps and was determined to be geographically confusing.
The change is expected to affect highway signs, government documents and approximately 14 million souvenir coffee mugs.
Residents will officially become New Americans, while people born there before the change will reportedly be allowed to continue identifying as New Mexicans during a two-year transition period.
Mexico has not been consulted.
In addition to a location tag on “Satire Street,” its Facebook bio reads (archived):
Delivering the Snews that doesn’t matter directly to your Snews feed. Did we say this is satire? Well it is, names/locations are made up
We reached out to the page owner for comment in January 2026 regarding a claim about AI-generated images of massive snow bank on Wyoming’s Devils Tower. The account’s administrator, Justin Hathaway, told Snopes over the phone: “I just love doing this satire stuff, it’s such an outlet for me.” He continued: “Another reason is people don’t really read things fully anymore, and it’s a good way to educate people on reading stories fully if they sound somewhat unbelievable.”
Other Casper Planet posts Snopes has debunked include a claim that Yellowstone National Park rangers warned the public that ravens had learned to open car doors and another that a man received a DUI while riding a bear.
US Central Command says its forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers on Saturday, in retaliation for Iranian forces firing ballistic missiles towards two US warships ‘patrolling regional waters’.
The assertions come Friday despite Bartiromo’s Hollywood attorney Bryan Freedman insisting the veteran Wall Street anchor is still “an employee” of Fox and threatening legal action. Adding to the burgeoning media mess surrounding the so-called “Money Honey,” Donald Trump had thrown serious shade on Fox for taking good pal Bartiromo off the air.
That shade could set the stage for yet another showdown between Trump and his once favorite media buddies at the Murdoch-ruled Fox.
“I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business,” Trump, a frequent Bartiromo guest, posted Thursday night, about 12 hours after Fox announced “effective today” that the Mornings With Maria host was out. “Three different shows, always number one. Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria!”
Bartiromo hadn’t been on the air for almost a month, with Deadline confirming that Fox brass had enough of the MAGA-friendly Bartiromo after they learned she passed corporate-guidance missives to the White House in recent months. However, carving her own way at Fox Business and Fox News for more than a decade, those communications were just the latest minefield that Fox execs feared could blow up in everyone’s faces.
“Her indiscretion was just the latest in a series of self-inflicted wounds,” a cable news insider says of Bartiromo and her close ties with Trump. “This has been a concern for a while, Maria being too cozy with the White House. She crossed a line, and she’s suffered the consequences.”
Weary of addressing allegations of similar conduct over the years by Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts, or Bartiromo’s contract specifics, the source added: “She’s no longer with Fox. Take that for what it is.”
Deadline hears that while there may be “technical truth” to Freedman’s remarks today that Bartiromo still works at Fox because of contracts and other paperwork, she is not returning to her Fox Business or Fox News roles — full stop.
Long a passionate defender of POTUS and offering him a platform over the years, Bartiromo’s apparent sharing of internal edicts with Trump administration officials, first reported by Status, made her pink-slipping inevitable.
Digging a little deeper and a few years back, the seeds of Bartiromo’s downfall were evident if you connect the red string.
In April 2023, Fox agreed to pay $787 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, one of the technology firms singled out in Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election results. Citied in volumes of court filings and the high-stakes trial that had just begun when Fox settled, Bartiromo was one of the main hosts on Fox promoting the false claims of irregularities with the election Trump lost and Joe Biden won. At the time, the top-rated Tucker Carlson was pulled off the air at Fox in a move that resulted in a Freedman-handled legal dust-up between Carlson and the media company.
No word from ex-Apprentice host Trump if Bartiromo is in the running to be the new White House Press Secretary, but sharp-elbowed lawyer Freedman says his client actually isn’t looking for a new job because she still has her old one.
“For many years, Maria Bartiromo hosted three number one rated television shows on Fox channels,” Freedman said Friday, as my colleague Dade Hayes noted earlier. “She has been, without question, one of the hardest working journalists throughout her award winning career.”
The lawyer for the likes of Carlson and Megyn Kelly, as well as Don Lemon, then unsheathed the knife that may lead to a bloody affair down the line.
“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,” Freedman said. “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.”
When Deadline asked Fox for a response to Freedman’s statement about his client’s employment situation, the company said: “the release speaks for itself.” The White House did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.
Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reports that US President Donald Trump is sending envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Moscow and Kyiv with a proposal aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The plan could include security guarantees for Ukraine and an initial ceasefire.
The assertions come Friday despite Bartiromo’s Hollywood attorney Bryan Freedman insisting the veteran Wall Street anchor is still “an employee” of Fox and threatening legal action. Adding to the burgeoning media mess surrounding the so-called “Money Honey,” Donald Trump had thrown serious shade on Fox for taking good pal Bartiromo off the air.
That shade could set the stage for yet another showdown between Trump and his once favorite media buddies at the Murdoch-ruled Fox.
“I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business,” Trump, a frequent Bartiromo guest, posted Thursday night, about 12 hours after Fox announced “effective today” that the Mornings With Maria host was out. “Three different shows, always number one. Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria!”
Bartiromo hadn’t been on the air for almost a month, with Deadline confirming that Fox brass had enough of the MAGA-friendly Bartiromo after they learned she passed corporate-guidance missives to the White House in recent months. However, carving her own way at Fox Business and Fox News for more than a decade, those communications were just the latest minefield that Fox execs feared could blow up in everyone’s faces.
“Her indiscretion was just the latest in a series of self-inflicted wounds,” a cable news insider says of Bartiromo and her close ties with Trump. “This has been a concern for a while, Maria being too cozy with the White House. She crossed a line, and she’s suffered the consequences.”
Weary of addressing allegations of similar conduct over the years by Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts, or Bartiromo’s contract specifics, the source added: “She’s no longer with Fox. Take that for what it is.”
Deadline hears that while there may be “technical truth” to Freedman’s remarks today that Bartiromo still works at Fox because of contracts and other paperwork, she is not returning to her Fox Business or Fox News roles — full stop.
Long a passionate defender of POTUS and offering him a platform over the years, Bartiromo’s apparent sharing of internal edicts with Trump administration officials, first reported by Status, made her pink-slipping inevitable.
Digging a little deeper and a few years back, the seeds of Bartiromo’s downfall were evident if you connect the red string.
In April 2023, Fox agreed to pay $787 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, one of the technology firms singled out in Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election results. Citied in volumes of court filings and the high-stakes trial that had just begun when Fox settled, Bartiromo was one of the main hosts on Fox promoting the false claims of irregularities with the election Trump lost and Joe Biden won. At the time, the top-rated Tucker Carlson was pulled off the air at Fox in a move that resulted in a Freedman-handled legal dust-up between Carlson and the media company.
No word from ex-Apprentice host Trump if Bartiromo is in the running to be the new White House Press Secretary, but sharp-elbowed lawyer Freedman says his client actually isn’t looking for a new job because she still has her old one.
“For many years, Maria Bartiromo hosted three number one rated television shows on Fox channels,” Freedman said Friday, as my colleague Dade Hayes noted earlier. “She has been, without question, one of the hardest working journalists throughout her award winning career.”
The lawyer for the likes of Carlson and Megyn Kelly, as well as Don Lemon, then unsheathed the knife that may lead to a bloody affair down the line.
“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,” Freedman said. “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.”
When Deadline asked Fox for a response to Freedman’s statement about his client’s employment situation, the company said: “the release speaks for itself.” The White House did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.
