A forthcoming book from media ombudsman Brian Stelter claims Fox News demoted Jeanine Pirro to co-host of “The Five” when it canceled “Justice with Judge Jeanine” following a record-setting lawsuit.
Pirro’s alleged demotion came at a dark time for Fox News, having settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. Multiple false statements by Pirro featured prominently in Dominion’s suit.
As Mediaite reports:
Two unnamed sources told Stelter that “Pirro was a problem” due to her “stubborn, slavish Trumpiness,” and that she had “clashed with Fox execs who’d grown tired of her histrionic shenanigans.” Pirro had also allegedly accused management of “censorship” when they suggested changes to the opening monologues of her weekend show Justice with Judge Jeanine.
According to Stelter, Pirro’s own executive producer called her a “reckless maniac.” Fox’s executive team supposedly concurred:
As a result, since “nobody wanted to deal with her,” according to one of the sources, Pirro was moved to The Five, where she could no longer write monologues or choose her own guests.
While Pirro’s “demotion” to The Five resulted in her gaining a far larger viewership, Stelter wrote that “it was pointed out to me that The Five is not the cushiest job for a seventy-something former prosecutor to hold,” and that the switch up made it easier for “the managers and lawyers.”
Another source with knowledge of the dispute attempted to cast doubt on Stelter’s reporting, telling Mediaite’s Charlie Nash, “you don’t get demoted to the number one show in cable news that’s on 5 nights a week.”
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