Updated 11:14 AM ET, Sun February 7, 2021
(CNN)Nothing unusual happened when Lou Dobbs hosted his Fox Business show on Thursday evening. His hour was full of Fox’s usual themes about “radical Dims” (Democrats) and Big Tech “abusing their power.”
“Join us here tomorrow,” he said at the end of the show. “See you then.” But that, it turned out, was his final broadcast. Fox pulled the plug on Friday in a cancellation so swift that it surprised even Dobb’s detractors. A day later, TV insiders are still abuzz about why it happened and what the decision augurs about Fox.
Fox may have soured on Dobbs long ago and used the post-election period to make a change. Thursday’s $2.7 billion lawsuit by Smartmatic may have been the final straw. Employees at Fox are privately wondering if Dobbs had some sort of falling out with Rupert or Lachlan Murdoch, the father and son pair who control Fox Corporation.
The people who would know are not talking. Officially, Fox simply said that Dobbs’ banishment was part of a broader programming revamp. And Dobbs declined to comment. But he spent Friday night and Saturday retweeting messages from dozens of his fans, including some who criticized Fox for the change.
Dobbs was once “respected as a business journalist,” former Fox News executive John Huddy said in an email message. But in recent years he had been “out of control, reckless and bad tempered,” Huddy said, articulating some of the factors that may have weighed on management’s decision.
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/06/media/lou-dobbs-fox-news-last-show/index.html