The media outlet Status reports that it has uncovered the reason behind Fox News' firing of veteran broadcaster Maria Bartiromo, the business journalist who later became a prominent conduit for right-wing conspiracy claims.

Bartiromo built her reputation as a pioneering Wall Street reporter at CNBC before joining Fox in 2013, where she anchored shows on both Fox News and Fox Business. Her later shift toward promoting Trump-aligned election fraud narratives made her a central figure in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against the network, in which court filings revealed she had aired unsupported claims while privately expressing doubts about them; Fox settled that suit in 2023 for $787.5 million.

The Rupert Murdoch-controlled network offered no explanation for her removal, but within hours of her dismissal, Status reported its conclusion: Bartiromo, 58, had informed the White House about Fox's internal instructions not to promote President Donald Trump's election conspiracy claims on the air.

According to Status, Fox News had instructed senior management to divert coverage away from Trump's primetime address to the nation, in which he claimed that China had interfered in the 2020 presidential election to benefit Joe Biden. In that address, Trump also attacked the U.S. election system without proof, while making no mention of Russian interference that favored his own election.

The White House was reportedly surprised that the network chose not to carry Trump's address and pressed Bartiromo for an explanation, eventually drawing the reason out of her. According to Status, Bartiromo went so far as to share the text message that relayed the network's orders for the blackout.

Following what the network viewed as a betrayal, Fox managers scrubbed Bartiromo's presence from the network, with Fox Business Network already removing her contributor page. The abruptness of the removal, and the network's refusal to explain it, stands in contrast to the carefully managed on-air farewells that typically mark departures of long-tenured Fox hosts.

In its statement, Fox News Media said: "Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media. In making the announcement, FOX News Media said, 'We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 and a half years and wish her all the best in her next chapter.'"

If Status's account is accurate, the dismissal adds a new chapter to the long-running tensions among Fox, Trump, and the White House over election coverage — tensions previously laid bare in the Dominion litigation — and raises the question of whether Bartiromo might re-emerge at an outlet more closely aligned with the president.