Fox News has reportedly just laid off their long-time politics editor, Chris Stirewalt, as well as a bunch of digital editors:
BREAKING –> Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt was laid off today alongside just under 20 Fox News staffers. Stirewalt sat on the Fox News decision desk, which has come under fire for its early call on Arizona election night. Story forthcoming…
— Sarah Ellison (@sarahellison) January 19, 2021
If you read the Daily Beast’s article on this, which says they spoke with some of the employees who were laid off, they are spinning this as Fox News dumping ‘real journalists’ to become more of a right-wing opinion outlet or something.
But Fox News announced that this is about a ‘restructuring’, saying “As we conclude the 2020 election cycle, Fox News Digital has realigned its business and reporting structure to meet the demands of this new era.”
They also note that senior vice president and D.C. managing editor Bill Sammon is retiring at the end of this month.
I can’t remember the last time we heard Fox News laying off anyone, especially this many folks at once. My initial speculation would be that this has to do with the company’s ratings loss as of late. It’s just a guess though, considering Tucker continues to lose to Anderson Cooper. After all, many people were unhappy with how Fox News covered the election and switched to OAN or Newsmax. Other viewers have probably just left because the election is over and Biden ‘won’. Either way, Fox News is on the struggle bus ratings wise.
Whatever their true motivations, Chris Stirewalt won’t be on the network any longer. And that’s especially surprising since he was a veteran on the network.