Fox News has officially dissolved its investigative unit, Rolling Stone reports.
This comes after the right-wing network recently agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in its billion dollar defamation lawsuit; after the network fired its "star" host, Tucker Carlson; and as the struggling news outlet still faces $2.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic.
Furthermore, the network was hit earlier this month with another defamation lawsuit from disinformation expert and author Nina Jankowicz.
Rolling Stone reports:
The relationship between Fox's news division and its opinion hosts has long been strained. Mediaite reported in March that after Tucker Carlson edited exclusive Capitol surveillance footage to make the Jan. 6 insurrection look peaceful, the news division refused to promote it. Rolling Stone spoke with several Fox employees who were elated after Carlson was fired last month.
A Fox employee who confirmed the unit's termination shared thoughts with the publication, saying, "The rank and file journalists are getting let go meanwhile upper management are sitting pretty while they are the execs responsible for the Dominion debacle," adding, "We are the sacrificial lambs."
Another employee added, "Yes, [layoffs] have happened, and continue to happen."
Yet, through all of the network's changes, one of the employees noted, "The outrage is that Suzanne Scott and Maria Bartiromo keep their jobs."
Scott serves as the network's Chief Executive Officer and Bartiromo was one of the hosts named in Dominion's lawsuit.
"Meanwhile the journalists get let go. We are in shock."
A former Fox anchor added, "I think producers, management, et cetera [are being laid-off]. "They are trying to get money off the books before June 30. They have to save money because of the [Dominion] lawsuit."
