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To: William R. Berkley, NYU Chairman of the Board
Tell NYU to Cut Ties to Fox host Maria Bartiromo
Fox host Maria Bartiromo used her Fox News and Fox Business platforms to amplify election lies. Yet she sits on the NYU Board of Trustees. Her abuse of power goes against the NYU Code of Ethical Conduct. NYU deserves trustees with high integrity and should cut ties with Bartiromo.
Why is this important?
Trump’s first interview after losing the 2020 election was with NYU Trustee and Fox host Maria Bartiromo. Before the interview even took place Bartiromo ran the questions by The White House. During it, she set Trump up to spread conspiracies by noting, “you’ve said many times that this election was rigged, that there was much fraud. And the facts are on your side. Let’s start there.” She also told millions of people, “This is disgusting! And we cannot allow America’s election to be corrupted,” during her interview.
Maria Bartiromo was a key pipeline for Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani to spread conspiracy theories against Democrats and voting integrity. She also helped disgraced propagandist Sidney Powell spread the false idea that there were “voting irregularities.”
Bartiromo was going to be called as a witness in the defamation case Dominion voting systems brought against Fox News before it was settled for $787 million. Furthermore, Bartiromo’s actions were so unethical that she is named as a defendant in voting election technology company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation case against Fox News because she was part of a “conspiracy to spread disinformation.” An appellate court declined to toss out the Smartmatic lawsuit, writing that Smartmatic “alleges in detailed fashion that in their coverage and commentary, Fox News, Dobbs, and Bartiromo effectively endorsed and participated in the statements with reckless disregard for, or serious doubts about, whether the assertions or implications that plaintiffs had participated in election fraud had any basis in truth or were supported by any reliable evidence.”
This should be simple for NYU. Bartiromo’s abuse of her power goes against the NYU Code of Ethical Conduct so the university should cut ties with Bartiromo.
The Board of Trustees is expected to provide reliable guidance to the university, and as a documented liar on an issue as important as the federal elections, Maria Bartiromo has no business being associated with NYU.