Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs’ show; pro-Trump host not expected to be back on air

Fox News Media has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the program hosted by television’s staunchest supporter of Donald Trump and of his assertions of voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Times has learned.

Dobbs’ program, which airs twice nightly at 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Business Network, will have its final airing Friday, according to a Fox News representative who confirmed the cancellation. Starting next week, the program will be called “Fox Business Tonight,” with rotating substitute hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman, who filled in for Dobbs on Friday.

Dobbs, 75, remains under contract at Fox News but he will in all likelihood not appear on the company’s networks again. In addition to his Fox Business Network program, he occasionally turned up on the Fox News Channel as a commentator. Continue reading.

Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell

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Voting company Smartmatic on Thursday filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, some of the network’s top hosts, Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell for starting a “disinformation campaign” against the company.

Why it matters: This is the second voting company to file a lawsuit against Giuliani and Powell, following Dominion Voting Systems’ two $1.3 billion defamation lawsuits against the pro-Trump lawyers.

  • Dominion warned Fox News last month that lawsuits were imminent. 
  • In comparison to Dominion, which was used in several states, Smartmatic machines were only used in Los Angeles County. Continue reading.

Lou Dobbs debunks his own claims of election fraud — after a legal demand from Smartmatic

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A fact-check segment that aired on his Fox Business show Friday will be rebroadcast on two other Fox programs this weekend

Something surprising happened Friday night on Lou Dobbs’s top-rated show on the Fox Business Network.

Dobbs, an opinion host and conservative ally of President Trump who has consistently raged over the past month that the president was robbed of a second term by a rigged election, introduced a segment that calmly debunked several accusations of fraud that Rudolph W. Giuliani and other Trump supporters have lobbed against the election technology company Smartmatic.

“There are lots of opinions about the integrity of the election, the irregularities of mail-in voting, of election voting machines and voting software,” Dobbs told his viewers before introducing Edward Perez, an expert with the nonprofit Open Source Election Technology Institute, to give “his assessment of Smartmatic and recent claims about the company.” Continue reading.