PALM BEACH, Florida – Maria Bartiromo, the high-profile TV anchor of “Sunday Morning Futures” until Fox News booted her off the air two months ago, resurfaced this week, declaring “the future of journalism will not be determined by who controls the microphone.”
Speaking Thursday night at James O’Keefe’s Citizen Journalist Awards at Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida, home of President Donald Trump, the two-time Emmy Award winner said: “When you know you are right and your facts are on your side, have the courage to stand your ground. Because the future of journalism will not be determined by who controls the microphone. It will be determined by who earns our trust.”
“I believe that the rise of citizen journalism represents something much larger than a change in the media business,” she told the audience. “It represents a fundamental change in power. The power to investigate, the power to question, the power to publish, and ultimately the power to hold those in authority accountable.
“But with that power comes extraordinary responsibility. The first obligation of a journalist is not to be first, but to be right. Not to be popular, not to be provocative, not to tell people what they want to hear, but to discover the truth and to have the courage to tell it. And sometimes that requires a second kind of courage, the courage to stand by the truth when others dismiss it.”
She continued: “When institutions challenge you, when the crowd turns against you, when telling the truth becomes a personal or professional cost to you, history reminds us that being in the majority does not make you right and standing alone does not make you wrong. But conviction alone is not enough.
“Courage must be accompanied by intellectual honesty, rigorous investigation and a willingness to follow the facts wherever they lead. That is what separates journalism from opinion and truth-seeking from advocacy. The best citizen journalists of the world understand that distinction.”
WATCH:
Thank you, @MariaBartiromo for presenting the Citizen Journalist Awards last night. It was truly an honor to have you with us. You could not have better captured the importance of journalism and the work we do. https://t.co/lQSSEDSURZ
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 14, 2026
Bartiromo personally saluted O’Keefe as her “personal hero” and “inspiration,” saying the undercover reporter “has helped redefine what it means to be a citizen journalist.”
“James O’Keefe understood something before much of the world caught on,” she explained. “You don’t need permission of a major media organization to investigate the powerful. You don’t need a prestigious title to ask difficult questions. You do not need an institution behind you to make your voice heard.”
O’Keefe, the founder of O’Keefe Media Group, thanked Bartiromo, saying: “You could not have better captured the importance of journalism and the work we do.”
President Trump on Saturday shared Bartiromo’s speech on Truth Social.
Bartiromo is not staying in seclusion despite her removal from Fox, as her next major gig is to serve as host of America Business Forum 2026, taking place Dec. 16 and 17 at Kaseya Center in Miami.
“In over 30 years in this industry, I’ve stood on hundreds of stages. The floor, the studio, the streets. But nothing quite like this,” she said. “I’ll take you inside the conversations that will challenge how we think, expand what we believe is possible, and inspire what comes next.”
WATCH:
As WorldNetDaily reported in September, in the wake of the mysterious disappearance of Bartiromo off Fox airwaves, Peter Navarro, the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, exposed the network and its CEO Suzanne Scott as anything but friendly toward President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda.
Appearing with Greg Kelly on Newsmax, Navarro said: “The bigger story here, Greg, is forget about anybody thinking that Fox is a conservative network that’s friendly to MAGA, that’s friendly to Trump.
“Suzanne Scott is the enforcer. They’ll feed you some red meat over there. You know, the easy stuff, you know, the trans stuff, stuff like that. But when it comes down to MAGA things, Suzanne Scott gets rid of everybody over there who wants to talk about MAGA issues.”
“You fire people like Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, now Maria Bartiromo. That throws fear into all these other anchors and keep them in line. It’s like, don’t talk about kind of Trump stuff.”
“What the producers are told by Suzanne Scott, who’s the CEO at Fox, is, when you craft your segments … you don’t do these MAGA issues. You don’t do pro-Trump stuff.”
WATCH:
Peter Navarro talks about what actually happened with Maria Bartiromo.@gregkellyusa pic.twitter.com/PNPUl5CU5S
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) September 9, 2026
As WorldNetDaily reported, Dylan Byers at Puck News explained Bartiromo’s ouster centered on her planned coverage of Trump’s July 16 address focusing on election integrity and his doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential race.
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