Fox & Friends weekend host Jedediah Bila, a conservative who pushed back on the Big Lie about the 2020 election, has left Fox News, a departure the network described as a mutual decision.
Bila posted news of her departure on Twitter Friday:
— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) May 21, 2021
You might notice that network bosses were not included in her gratitude list. Also, though she thanked “anchors,” she did not mention her cohosts, Pete Hegseth and Will Cain, each Big Lie promoters.
Fox News said it had “mutually and amicably parted ways” with Bila.
Bila has been Trump-friendly on the network. Most notably (and disturbingly), she endorsed Donald Trump's hideous “go back” tweets. She also twisted herself into a pretzel defending his claim to have told “my people” to slow down coronavirus testing to keep the case count low.
But the Big Lie, that the 2020 election was stolen, was a bridge too far for her. She pushed back on claims about voter fraud, said Trump had a responsibility to concede, and she challenged Newt Gingrich’s allegations about a stolen election.
Instead of rewarding Bila for her integrity and truth-telling, Fox got rid of her.
Bila is at least the third person to leave in the wake of Fox going even Trumpier late last month. On April 29, Fox announced a Trump DOJ spokesperson with no journalism experience would become the network’s Washington, D.C. editor. That same day, Fox announced that the producer of the Trumpy shows, Justice with Judge Jeanine and The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton would oversee all daytime weekend news.
Also that day, Fox announced it had “mutually and amicably parted ways” with Leland Vittert, formerly a weekend anchor. A week later, White House correspondent Kristin Fisher departed for CNN.
(Bila image via screen grab, from a 2018 return visit to ABC’s The View)
Off-topic: Margerie Taylor Greene (sp?) makes rocks look intelligent. Her attempt to equate the yellow stars that Jews had to wear and the House mask mandate is apples to oranges: the former singled out a specific group while the latter applies to everyone, without distinction. I’d like to propose MTG’s mind-boggling bit of ignorance for Ellen’s weekly post on most outrageous quotes.