Fox News found itself in cleanup mode after one of its biggest names was forced to issue an embarrassing on-air apology over a claim pushed by Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary.
Maria Bartiromo stopped her Fox Business Network show on Friday morning to correct the record after O’Leary falsely suggested that opponents of his massive Utah data center project were being funded by China.
The moment was unusually blunt for Fox News, with Bartiromo reading a carefully worded apology and making clear that neither O’Leary nor the network had evidence to support the explosive allegation.
“Mr. O’Leary has now corrected the record and explained that he has no evidence that the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Josh Kanter, Taylor Knuth, or Gabriel Finlayson are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party,” Bartiromo said on air.
She continued: “Fox News Media is likewise aware of no evidence that they are funded by, acting at the direction of, or coordinating with Chinese interests in opposing Kevin O’Leary’s project. Fox News Media apologizes for the error.”
The apology came after O’Leary, a Canadian businessman and vocal Trump supporter, appeared on Bartiromo’s show in May and suggested that China was behind opposition to his planned data center project in Utah, which could reportedly span up to 40,000 acres.
At the time, O’Leary was wearing a “Utah National Security” hat as he framed resistance to the project as something that could benefit America’s enemies.
“Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would want to stop us from having the computing capacity to develop AI? Which adversary would want that? There’s only one. It’s China,” O’Leary said during the May appearance.
But that dramatic accusation has now come crashing back down.
Bartiromo also showed viewers the retraction O’Leary posted on social media, where he admitted he had “no evidence” that the people and groups opposing the project were tied to China or the Chinese Communist Party.
Notably, O’Leary’s statement corrected the record but did not include an actual apology for making the claim in the first place.
Bartiromo was not the only Fox personality forced to clean up the mess.
Johnny Joey Jones, host of The Big Weekend Show, also read a similarly worded apology after O’Leary corrected the record about comments made during a May 24 appearance on that program. Kayleigh McEnany also issued an apology during Saturday in America.
Media reporter Oliver Darcy of Status described the network’s response as a rare “coordinated cleanup effort” from Fox News, calling it an unusual “display of remorse from a network that seldom assumes such a defensive posture.”
Darcy also suggested the sudden apology tour may have been driven by legal pressure.
“What exactly prompted O’Leary and Fox to embark on this unusual apology tour remains unclear, but it’s a safe bet that a legal threat was involved,” Darcy wrote. “Once O’Leary publicly acknowledged he had no evidence for his allegations, Fox was left in an uncomfortable position.”
The episode comes three years after Fox News agreed to pay more than $787 million to settle Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit over the network’s coverage of false 2020 election fraud claims.
Now, the network is once again facing scrutiny over explosive claims aired on its programs — and this time, its stars are being made to say sorry on camera.
The Daily Beast reported that it contacted Fox News for comment.
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