Maria Sara Bartiromo (born September 11, 1967) is an American conservative journalist and author who has also worked as a financial reporter and news anchor. She was the host of Mornings with Maria and Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street on the Fox Business channel, and Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News channel until her firing in 2026.
Bartiromo worked at CNN as a producer for five years before joining CNBC in 1993, where she worked on-air for 20 years. With CNBC, she was the host of Closing Bell and On the Money with Maria Bartiromo. She was the first television journalist to deliver live television reports from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She has won several awards for her work on these programs, including two Emmy Awards. Nicknamed the "Money Honey", she garnered considerable attention within the financial industry in addition to the media. Her work for CNBC was largely non-political in its subject matter and approach.
In 2013, she left CNBC to host shows for Fox, starting in January 2014. During the first presidency of Donald Trump, she became an advocate for the Trump administration, giving him frequent unchallenging interviews. She is one of three Fox program hosts named in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic relating to unproven conspiracy theories used in attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. As of April 2023, the lawsuit was in the discovery phase. Bartiromo was among the hosts named in the Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network defamation lawsuit for broadcasting false statements about the plaintiff company's voting machines that Fox News settled for $787.5 million and required Fox News to acknowledge that the broadcast statements were false.
Early life and education Bartiromo was born to Italian-American parents Vincent and Josephine Bartiromo, and was raised in the Dyker Heights area of Brooklyn in New York City. Her father owned the Rex Manor restaurant in Brooklyn, and her mother served as the hostess. Her mother also worked as a clerk at an off-track betting parlor. Her mother's family was from Agrigento, Sicily. Channel 13 PBS New York Her grandfather Carmine Bartiromo immigrated to the United States from Nocera, Campania in 1933, settling in New York and serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Bartiromo attended Fontbonne Hall Academy, an all-girls private Catholic school in Bay Ridge. During this time, she worked at the coat check at her father's restaurant and as a stock clerk at a wedding dress shop. She was fired from the latter for trying on newly arrived dresses before putting them away; she recalled "I cried the whole way home, but I learned a valuable lesson and that is – do your job."
Bartiromo started college at C.W. Post before transferring to New York University. During her college years, she worked at the same betting parlor where her mother worked. She graduated from NYU's Washington Square Campus in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and economics.
While at NYU, she became involved with radio, interning on Barry Farber's show on WMCA 570. Farber was impressed by her willingness and capability in doing behind-the-scenes tasks associated with the role. Following that, she interned at CNN.
Career CNN
After her internship, which began in 1988 or 1989, Bartiromo spent five years as an executive producer and assignment editor with CNN Business. Her supervisor at CNN was Lou Dobbs, who later became a colleague at Fox Business. She also worked as a production assistant for Stuart Varney there.
CNBC Live from the stock exchange floor In 1993, Bartiromo was hired by executive Roger Ailes to replace analyst Roy Blumberg at CNBC, and began reporting live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as hosting and contributing to the Market Watch and Squawk Box segments. Bartiromo became the first journalist to deliver live television reports from the raucous floor of New York Stock Exchange. The Guardian newspaper described the scene as, "viewers could watch Bartiromo amid the tumult on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, straining her voice to be heard as she delivered reports to camera ..., her 5ft 5in frame [1.65m] often jostled by burly traders." She has said of that innovation: "I got bumped around a little, but it was very exciting — a new, instantaneous way of reporting market news. We immediately had a big following."
Bartiromo was the anchor and managing editor of the CNBC business interview show On the Money with Maria Bartiromo (called The Wall Street Journal Report during much of this time). Beginning in 2007, she hosted The Business of Innovation. She hosted several other programs, including Closing Bell (2002–2013), Market Wrap (1998–2000), and Business Center (1997–1999). She became known for the ability to get CEOs of companies in the news to come on her show for an interview. She became influential.
"Money Honey" Bartiromo appeared on television shows such as NBC Universal's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, CBS Television Distribution's The Oprah Winfrey Show, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Warner Bros. Television's short-lived The Caroline Rhea Show, CNBC's even shorter-existing McEnroe, and Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, as well as guest-hosting on the syndicated Live with Regis and Kelly.
Over the years, writers for multiple media outlets have commented on her good looks and likened her appearance to that of the Italian actress Sophia Loren."Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo talks with Fashion Flash prior to Cleveland visit: RNC 2016" , Allison Carey, The Plain Dealer, July 20, 2016 It is a comparison that Bartiromo has acknowledged and welcomed as a compliment. "GOP Debate Moderator Maria Bartiromo on That Brooch That Almost Broke the Internet, Her Love for Jumpsuits and More! " , Brittany Talarico, People, January 14, 2016
Bartiromo was nicknamed the "Money Honey" in the mid-to-late 1990s, a moniker that she had conflicted feelings about lest it diminish her credibility as a financial journalist. In January 2007, Bartiromo filed trademark applications to use the term "Money Honey" as a brand name for a line of children's products, including toys, puzzles and coloring books, to teach kids about money. By some accounts she later let the trademarks expire.
Continued prominence
Bartiromo anchored the television coverage of New York City's Columbus Day Parade beginning in 1995 and was the grand marshal in 2010.
In 2006–07 there was controversy over Bartiromo possibly being too close socially to some of the executives she was covering, which included overseas trips with some such sources. In part, that was part and parcel of her role to add "pizazz and drama". As The New York Times wrote, "in her years as CNBC's most recognizable face, [she] has lent to the reporting of once gray business news a veneer of gloss and celebrity." But the Times noted that: "Typically, Ms. Bartiromo's interviewing style can be probing, aggressive and, her special access notwithstanding, she can make even some of her best sources sweat a bit on camera." CNBC defended her on the matter, saying that the trips in question were properly approved and that "her journalistic integrity was never compromised", and Bartiromo retained the confidence of NBC upper management.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, which featured the collapse of some Wall Street firms and the federal bailouts of others, Bartiromo commented in an interview: "I'm a free-market capitalist who would like to think that the market can correct itself. Unfortunately, the structures we have in place dropped the ball. The boards of directors were asleep at the wheel. So were the regulators. I believe that so-called independent boards of directors should be held accountable for their firms, too. Wall Street today faces the wrath of their shareholders and the scorn of the public. There's got to be substantial change from within to regain public trust."
Bartiromo signed a new five-year contract with CNBC in late 2008 (). Her salary there was around $4 million a year. Former colleague Dylan Ratigan has said that Bartiromo "is a generational icon for financial television. Full stop."
Fox Business and Fox News Early years and ratings
On November 18, 2013, it was announced that Bartiromo was leaving CNBC to join Fox Business (FBN). According to the Drudge Report, her deal with Fox Business called for her to anchor a daily market hours program and to have a role on Fox News as well. Her first show with Fox Business was Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo. She expanded the subject domains she covered to include not just the stock market but also larger questions of public policy and the overall economy.
Since her time with the Fox Business channel, the ratings for her show began to surge when she became an important news source for Trump supporters.
Presidential debate host The developments of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination race benefited her ratings, as she developed an on-air relationship with Trump.
In regard to the 2016 Republican Party presidential debates and forums, she was one of three moderators for Fox Business of the debate of November 10, 2015, at the Milwaukee Theatre and she and her colleagues were credited with keeping a focus on economics and for overseeing a largely civil discussion among the candidates. She even drew some boos from the audience for suggesting that likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had much more relevant experience than the candidates on stage. She then co-hosted on Fox Business another Republican debate, this time on January 14, 2016, in the North Charleston Coliseum, one that was not previously planned but awarded on the basis of the first performance. One assessment of the North Charleston debate was that the moderators were initially mild but got tougher as the debate went on and delved more into economic matters.
During the 2016 general election, she commented on the differing ways that Wall Street would react to either candidate winning. She received a good deal of attention during this period for her sartorial choices for the traditional Al Smith Dinner. But as the election ran on towards its conclusion, Bartiromo took an increasingly sharp pro-Trump stance, such as repeating trolling Internet posts attacking Clinton.
Donald Trump presidency After Trump became president in 2017, she became an advocate for the Trump administration. She also gave friendly, non-challenging softball interviews to Trump and amplified Trump administration conspiracy theories and falsehoods. In her Trump interviews, she expressed agreement with and did not question Trump's claims, many of which had been debunked as false or unsubstantiated. Making reference to allegations that Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, used the U.S. intelligence community to spy on the Trump campaign and transition, Bartiromo said that 2016 requests by Obama administration officials to unmask the identity of an American who was the subject of a counterintelligence operation (who turned out to be Trump associate Michael Flynn) was "the biggest political scandal we've ever seen." Attorney general Bill Barr named federal prosecutor John Bash to lead an investigation, which concluded months later with no findings of substantive wrongdoing and no public report.