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Mark Cuban On ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ Cancellation: ‘Words Have Consequences’

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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban responded to Fox News’ decision to cancel Fox Business Network’s highest-rated show, Lou Dobbs Tonight. In an interview Thursday night on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, Cuban told host Chris Cuomo “when you hold people accountable for their words by suing them in court, there’s consequences.”

Fox News Media announced Thursday that beginning Monday, Lou Dobbs’ 5 p.m. ET time slot would be retitled Fox Business Tonight, with fill-in hosts—Jackie DeAngelis on Monday and Tuesday, and David Asman hosting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The decision to end Lou Dobbs Tonight came a day after the election tech company Smartmatic filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, naming Dobbs as an individual defendant.

“As we said in October, Fox News Media regularly considers programming changes, and plans have been in place to launch new formats as appropriate post-election, including on Fox Business,” said a Fox News Media spokesperson. “This is part of those planned changes. A new 5 p.m. program will be announced in the near future.”

Smartmatic specifically cited Lou Dobbs Tonight in its filing, as the show—and its fiercely Trump-supporting host—repeated so many false statements about the election results that Fox was forced to run a fact-checking statement on air as a corrective measure. “Fox News Media is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion,” said a Fox spokesperson this week. “We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend against this meritless lawsuit in court.”

On CNN, Cuban said he hoped the lawsuit would lead to discovery that reveals more about the decisions hosts like Dobbs made—and what they knew about the things they said on air. “Words have consequences,” Cuban said.

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