How your regime-aligned media sausage gets made
By 
Oliver Darcy reports that Fox News bingo caller Maria Bartiromo got fired because she tattled to her spiritual boss about her actual ones:
On Thursday afternoon, Fox News issued a press release that reverberated through the media and political worlds. In a terse statement, the network announced that it had severed ties with Maria Bartiromo, the once-respected business journalist who in recent years became consumed by right-wing conspiracy theories. “We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” Fox News said.
That was it. The Rupert Murdoch-controlled network offered no explanation for parting ways with the high-profile host, who is known to be very close to Donald Trump. It didn’t even explicitly say that Bartiromo had been fired—though make no mistake, she was. In the hours that followed, insiders wondered what had gone awry. What had Bartiromo done to get pink-slipped by the outlet she had called home for more than a decade?
Status has learned that Bartiromo’s termination stems from an incident, which has not previously been reported, that occurred in July. After Trump delivered his unhinged prime time speech in which he pushed more conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, this time making a number of allegations against China, I am told that Fox issued guidance to senior employees instructing them to steer clear of giving credence to Trump’s delusional claims. I’m told that the guidance was issued in writing.
Indeed, the day after Trump’s prime time address, Fox conspicuously avoided covering the debunked claims the president had pushed. The lack of coverage raised eyebrows among media observers at the time. It also appears to have caught the attention of the White House.
It’s unclear whether Trump or someone at the White House inquired with Bartiromo about the lack of coverage. But ultimately Bartiromo spilled the secret, Status has learned, divulging to the White House that Trump’s speech had received scant coverage on the channel because network bosses had ordered it so. I’m even told the text message in which Fox Business brass offered their guidance was shared by Bartiromo with the White House. In doing so, Bartiromo not only effectively betrayed her employer, but also disclosed confidential company information, violating the terms of her employment agreement.
Bartiromo was shitcanned, in other words, because she acted according to what the Donald wanted rather than what he needed.
What makes Fox such a successful propaganda outlet is that it’s not just partisan rather than ideological, but is very shrewd about knowing which issues advance the partisan interest and which do not. They use both commission and omission to advance the party’s interest, and sanewashing Trump is perhaps job #1. (Bari Weiss is not going to be nearly as effective, not merely because she’s much less competent than Murdoch but because while she certainly wants Republicans to win she has certain obsessions she’s going to push irrespective of whether or not increasing their salience helps Republican interests.) Somewhere along the way Bartiromo became a true believer in Trump’s conspiracies rather than Trump’s own political interests, and that’s a line at Fox you’d better not cross. And of course peddling election conspiracy theories carries additional liability risks.