On Friday and Saturday, Fox News hosts awkwardly did something that the network had long resisted—even after paying $787 million to settle Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit over the 2020 election: They apologized.
Mario Bartiromo delivered the first on Friday, followed by similar statements from hosts on Fox News and Fox Business programs, including “The Big Weekend Show,” “Saturday in America,” and the “The Big Money Show.” In each case, the host referred to appearances by investor Kevin O’Leary, who issued his own statement via social media on Thursday, without ever actually using the word “apologize.”
The retreat stemmed from May, when O’Leary appeared on Fox Business wearing a “Utah National Security” hat for an interview with Bartiromo. During the segment, the “Shark Tank” star, a.k.a. “Mr. Wonderful,” accused several individuals and organizations opposing his controversial data center project in Utah of serving as “proxies for the Chinese government,” helping to sabotage American A.I. advancement. O’Leary listed individuals affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, The People’s Dispatch, Alliance for a Better Utah, and Elevate Strategies by name but cited no evidence for his claims, only referring to his staff having engaged in a “deep dig into the IP addresses” associated with what he called an “immediate spike in misinformation” about his Stratos Project.
“Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would want to stop us from having compute capacity to develop A.I.? Which adversary would want that? There’s only one. It’s China,” O’Leary said.
But on Thursday, O’Leary abruptly walked back the allegations in a statement posted to social media, writing: “Recently I appeared on various news programs and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth, or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.”
The retraction set off something exceedingly rare at Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing network, beginning with Bartiromo, whose statements and guests regarding the 2020 election also featured prominently in the 2023 Dominion settlement. Bartiromo interrupted her program to correct the record on air, citing O’Leary’s walkback of the allegations he leveled on her show before adding, “Fox News Media is likewise aware of no evidence that they are funded by or acting at the direction of or in coordination with Chinese interests in opposing Kevin O’Leary’s project. Fox News Media apologizes for the error.”
The coordinated cleanup effort represented a striking display of remorse from a network that seldom assumes such a defensive posture. But it also highlights the risk associated with booking guests who level unsubstantiated claims without in some way qualifying them or expressing the requisite skepticism about whether they’re actually true.
What exactly prompted O’Leary and Fox to embark on this unusual apology tour remains unclear, but it’s a safe bet that a legal threat was involved. Once O’Leary publicly acknowledged he had no evidence for his allegations, Fox was left in an uncomfortable position. A spokesperson for the network declined to comment, although people familiar with the matter indicated to Status that no money changed hands. Spokespeople for O’Leary and O’Leary Ventures did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, and those specifically targeted by O’Leary’s Fox appearances also did not respond to requests for comment.
In the days after O’Leary’s appearance in May, Finlayson and Jackie Morgan, the Democratic strategists who co-founded Elevate Strategies, mocked the 71-year-old over the allegations, telling Business Insider, “The only foreign operative here is a Canadian wealthy person trying to ruin our state.” They also posted TikTok videos skewering him for wearing flip-flops with a suit, and joking, “We run Democratic campaigns in the state of Utah. If we were in this to be making money, we would be doing literally anything else.” The pair even marketed their own hats playing off the one that O’Leary wore, saying, “Please support us, because we might need lawyers.”
While Fox may have avoided apologizing as a condition of its record settlement with Dominion, writing a nearly $800 million check appears to have heightened the network’s sensitivity to defamation risk. The O’Leary episode suggests the network is keenly aware of the dangers associated with allowing guests to make unsubstantiated claims on the air, even, in this case, if the toll is less financial than simply embarrassing.
Bari Weiss and Mark Thompson. (Getty Images/Status)
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While CNN chief Mark Thompson has yet to discuss his role in a merged Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery with David Ellison, he has told Paramount officials he wouldn’t be willing to share oversight of CNN with another executive, Michael Grynbaum and Ben Mullin reported, amid speculation about Bari Weiss’ involvement with the network. [NYT]
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The Times also reported that Anderson Cooper has told colleagues he doesn’t want to work for Weiss after leaving “60 Minutes,” which, as Status previously reported, came after he had grown uncomfortable with the right-ward shift at CBS News under Weiss.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta darted around reporting that he wants CNN divested from Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery if the merger can’t be blocked, telling MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff he’s not sure “where that comes from” but his office continues “investigating,” and will make a decision on action in the coming weeks. [Instagram]
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“The transaction has not cleared regulatory scrutiny,” Bonta said, adding that “there are red flags in the air everywhere.”
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Donald Trump railed against Maggie Haberman in a wee-hours Truth Social rant Sunday, calling her and Jonathan Swan’s “Regime Change” “Fake News” and “largely fiction,” though the pair interviewed Trump for the book. [The Hill]
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KABC-TV reporter Abigail Velez apologized after going viral for saying “I don’t know the first thing about Bosnia” and couldn’t find it on a map before the U.S. plays Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup. [NY Post]
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Throughout the weekend, people across social media dunked on Trump’s Great American State Fair, which saw low attendance, poor weather, and plenty of technical issues. [The Wrap]
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Even Vanilla Ice’s Freedom 250 performance was canceled due to “inclement weather,” after the artist was one of the few not to pull out of the event. [Deadline]
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Elon Musk posted Armie Hammer’s “Citizen Vigilante” on X, with the link to the German-banned film going dark after about 48 hours. [Variety]
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Josh D’Amaro emphasized his digital strategy and sports rights in assessing his first 100 days as Disney’s chief exec, Ben Fritz reported, which has included pushing back against Brendan Carr’s FCC. [WSJ]
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Ben Collins discussed The Onion’s plan to turn Infowars and a culture of “grifters and weirdos” into a parody site with Scott Nover. [WaPo]
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Hunter Walker, Derick Dirmaier, and Allegra Kirkland wrote about how TikTok has been taking down videos from news creators. [TPM]
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Alex Witt was lauded by colleagues and guests amid news that she would be leaving MS NOW. [Mediaite]
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The Kennedy Center name was back on the red carpet as Bill Maher received the Mark Twain Prize Sunday, but the facade remained covered. [AP]
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Amazon renewed the YA series “Every Year After.” [THR]
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Mel Brooks received a wave of tributes as he turned 100 Sunday. [EW]
Milly Alcock in “Supergirl.” (Courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures)
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“Supergirl” joins “Masters of the Universe” atop the list of this summer’s high-profile flops, flying far below expectations with an estimated $38 million domestic opening.
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The DC/Warner Bros. release is ill timed if the studio wants to impress bosses-in-waiting at Paramount, which had its own subpar launch with the much cheaper “jackass: best and last” ($8.4 million).
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“Toy Story 5” again claimed the top spot with a $70 million weekend, leaving the Pixar movie just shy of $300 million, and nearly twice that much globally.
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Beat it: “Michael” officially passed “Oppenheimer” as the top biopic ever, with $977 million worldwide.
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At the year’s near-midway point, domestic box office is running 15% ahead of 2025, Deadline noted.
The latest episode of our podcast Power Lines is out.
In this week’s episode: We discuss the historic ratings lows plaguing Gayle King’s “CBS Mornings” under Bari Weiss. Plus, “Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil tries to establish some independence from CBS News and Paramount brass.
We also discuss how Mark Zuckerberg dodged tough questions in a rare interview published in Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me newsletter and unpack Tucker Carlson going nuclear on Donald Trump by calling him a “bitch.” Finally, in our inaugural Media Moment of the Week segment, we have a message for Joe Rogan, who read a Status story on his show.
