Reporters live by the leak. Sometimes, they die by the leak too ... if they're the leaker. Allegedly.
Word leaked out yesterday that Fox Business Channel and longtime host Maria Bartiromo had parted ways. At first, observers expected to hear that she had left to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. However, her former booking producer Breanna Morello made it sound as though Fox cut ties with Bartiromo rather than the other way around:
Fox Corp is parting ways with Maria Bartiromo.
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) September 3, 2026
As her former booking producer, I can say she is the hardest-working journalist at the company.
Bartiromo has given everything to her 12 years of work at Fox Corp.
She worked six days a week and has a presence on their platforms… pic.twitter.com/oIvH8DvZfF
As I noted in last night's Final Word, the situation was confusing enough to become a topic in Vice President J.D. Vance's press briefing at the White House. When asked about it, Vance seemed surprised to hear the news, calling her a "very very dear friend." Vance also said he didn't think she would be coming into the White House:
Reporter: Maria Bartiromo left Fox News. Is she going to be the next White House press secretary?
— Bruce Snyder (@realBruceSnyder) September 3, 2026
JD Vance: I don’t know, man. No, I don’t think so. pic.twitter.com/Iddsm0osro
Late yesterday, word finally got out about a dispute between Fox and Bartiromo that had boiled for weeks. Dylan Byers reported it last night for Puck on Twitter:
NEW: The Maria Bartiromo backstory, per multiple sources familiar....
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) September 3, 2026
Maria Bartiromo wanted to pursue a story related to China and 2020 election voting conspiracies... a major sensitivity for the network given its Dominion and Smartmatic lawsuits.
A Fox Business executive sent…
A Fox Business executive sent a text to Fox Business producers informing them that that story could not go to air.
Bartiromo took a screen shot of the guidance and sent it to senior White House officials.
Fox News leadership learned about that after receiving a call from the White House, which they viewed as a fireable offense.
Fox pulled Bartiromo from air after Aug. 9. She was fired today. I have also learned that her executive producer Patrick Ignozzi was also fired after the annoucnement.
Maria had resigned her contract with Fox last February.
"Resigned" likely meant "re-signed," of course. Byers promised more for Puck today, although at least as of the moment, it has yet to surface. If true, though, that certainly would explain why Fox took Bartiromo off the air. Getting leaks from the White House makes reporters very valuable; giving leaks to the White House makes them expendable. That may be especially true at Fox these days, where the Murdochs were the target of a lawsuit from Donald Trump that is still wending its way through the courts. If Bartiromo leaked internal communications to a person who's already suing them – and that's still just an allegation – it's a wonder that it took this long to get the axe.
Byers did add another juicy tidbit last night. Bartiromo has hired a well-known attorney to handle the situation with Fox. Bryan Freedman is a heavyweight in the entertainment industry, described by the Hollywood Reporter in 2024 as a "street fighter" and "the Dark Knight":
In 2021, ESPN broadcaster Sage Steele was suspended following comments she made on a podcast, including calling parent company Disney’s vaccine mandates “sick” and questioning why Barack Obama considers himself Black when he was raised by his white mother. When she returned to her job, she felt she’d been sidelined from key on-air opportunities. So she dialed one of her closest friends, Chris Harrison, for advice. They’d gotten to know each other while co-hosting the Miss America pageant and the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He, too, had recently lost a big gig — as host of ABC’s The Bachelor, after defending a contestant accused of racism.
“Chris said, ‘I know who you need to talk to — my lawyer. He’ll be calling you momentarily,’ ” Steele remembers. “Within five minutes, Bryan Freedman was on the phone with me.” Steele left ESPN — she now has a podcast at Bill Maher’s Club Random Studios and will voice an upcoming animated series for conservative media outfit The Daily Wire — but was pleased by the settlement Freedman clinched. “He’s the kind of person you need if you’re David fighting Goliath,” she says. “Little me versus Disney? He’s the defender of what’s right. He fought for me when I didn’t even think I was worthwhile. He made me feel fearless when I was at my most vulnerable.”
Freedman, the divisive Hollywood attorney who’s referred to himself as a “pit bull” and is known for a rabidity and ruthlessness that can make even his fellow ferocious practitioners marvel in astonishment, has ascended as a powerhouse in recent years, becoming the go-to for alpha dogs who see themselves as the underdogs in a crisis.
Bartiromo didn't hire Freedman just to clean up the remaining contractual issues. This looks like war. And to be fair, we haven't heard Bartiromo's side of this yet, so stay tuned, because this might be something else entirely once all the facts are on the table.
Exit question: Does this fight actually enhance Bartiromo's chances of replacing Leavitt?
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