Fox News Anchors File Motions to Dismiss Smartmatic Defamation Lawsuit

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorKayleigh McEnany, a White House Press Secretary during the Trump administration whose performance in the role drew criticism, has joined Fox News as a contributor, the network announced Tuesday. Details were revealed during an on-air interview with Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner.McEnany isn’t the first Trump administration official to take an on-air role with the Fox Corp.-backed outlet.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorGeorge Stephanopoulos and David Muir will start to split breaking-news duties at ABC News, a new effort by the Walt Disney unit to rework an unorthodox arrangement involving two of its top anchors.Under a new structure, Muir will largely handle special reports and news of national importance in the afternoon and evening hours, while Stephanopoulos will shepherd similar efforts in the morning, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThis Saturday-morning news show is supposed to look like the ones that precede it Monday through Friday. It doesn’t.Co-anchor Jeff Glor isn’t wearing a tie and his colleagues, Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson, often join him in a weekend outing that seems cut from different cloth than the weekday version to which it is tied.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTucker Carlson will expand his content contributions for Fox News Media, agreeing to a new deal to create three video podcasts and some original specials for Fox Nation, the company’s subscription-based video service.Starting in April,  Carlson is expected to release at least three new video podcast episodes a week. They will feature interviews with newsmakers, as well as discussions of prominent issues in the news cycle.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCNN shook up its daytime schedule, unveiling a series of changes that will affect both its “New Day” morning program as well as its afternoon programming — the latest in a series of change at the nation’s big mainstream TV news outlets in the aftermath of the 2020 election.The WarnerMedia cable-news outlet intends to move early-afternoon anchor Brianna Keilar to co-host “New Day” with John Berman, pair morning host Alisyn Camerota with Victor Blackwell in the 2

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLarry Kudlow spent nearly three years advising former President Donald Trump on economic policy. Now he’s taking to Fox Business Network, where he will get to comment as a new Commander-in-Chief is likely to dismantle much of what his predecessor wrought.Can he do so in an objective manner?“I’ve said good and bad things about Democrats and Republicans,” says Kudlow in an interview, noting that business-news viewers probably already know his philosophy.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSavannah Guthrie’s next one-hour special won’t appear on any of NBC News’ best known properties, which include “Today” and “NBC Nightly News.”  And yet, it may be of more critical importance to the NBCUniversal-owned news organization than any in-depth report she’s presented in recent months.Guthrie will today kick off a week-long focus by NBC News on the mental health of young people during the pandemic, the first of what NBC News President Noah Oppenheim says

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFor as long as CNBC has been on the air, its viewers have seen Sue Herera. Starting next week, they may not spot her every day.The veteran business-news correspondent.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorBloomberg News on Thursday began notifying a group of employees they were being terminated, according to three people familiar with the matter, the latest in an ongoing string of layoffs at media companies as they grapple with the economics of the  digital age.Some staffers were given the sense the company hoped to enact a restructuring among a group of veteran editors, according to one of these people, who noted that some employees affected had been with

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox News Channel plans to fill its 11 p.m. weeknight hour with an “irreverent” late-night show from host Greg Gutfeld, the latest in a series of programming maneuvers the Fox Corporation-owned outlet has put into place in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election,The show currently airing at 11 p.m.

Fox Corp. has signed Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott to a multi-year contract extension.

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Fox News is not about to adjust its political orientation despite a bumpy period during and after the 2020 presidential election and a recent slip in its ratings.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox News Media made a bid Monday to quash a massive $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit that has called into question segments delivered on at least three of its programs, saying the legal case presented by voting-technology firm Smartmatic is “meritless” and would “chill First Amendment activities.”Smartmatic, a maker of software that helps in elections,  has been the subject of disparaging commentary from a handful of conservative-news outlets.

Fox News is seeking a dismissal of Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit, arguing that it was providing First Amendment protected newsworthy information in featuring President Donald Trump’s surrogates and their false claims of election fraud.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLou Dobbs’ program is off the schedule at Fox Business Network, and Larry Kudlow’s will soon be on.Fox Business Network will launch a new 4 p.m. program led by Kudlow on Tuesday, February 16, putting the former Trump economic adviser and CNBC personality on screen just as the stock markets close for the day.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSuper Bowl ads typically offer a mirror on society, but on Sunday they provided a window to the future.Dozens of Super Bowl advertisers ignored the coronavirus pandemic that grips the nation, and looked instead to better times.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox Business Network is poised to cancel Lou Dobbs’ long-running program, the latest in a series of programming changes taking place at Fox News Media, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.A spokesperson for Fox News Media could not be reached for immediate comment.Dobbs is one of three Fox News personalities who has been sued along with the Fox Corporation unit by Smartmatic, the voting technology company that has levied a $2.7 billion defamation

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSmartmatic, a maker of voting technology whose name has been the subject of disparaging commentary from a handful of conservative-news outlets, on Thursday said it had sued Fox News and three of its popular on-air personalities — Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro — for more than $2.7 billion, citing efforts made on Fox News programs to disparage the company’s business.Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who had been working for President

Smartmatic said on Thursday that it filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox Corp., claiming that Fox News “irreparably harmed” its reputation when some of their news personalities and guests pegged the company as responsible for rigging election results.