Why Fox News apologized for remarks by Kevin O’Leary of ‘Shark Tank’
Fox News issued a series of on-air apologies over the weekend, one month after airing Kevin O’Leary’s unfounded allegations against opponents of his AI data center project in Utah.
The late apology and correction, however, have some wondering, why now?
Linking critics to the Chinese government
During a May 24 appearance on Fox, “Shark Tank” star O’Leary claimed that people trying to stop the data center have connections to the Chinese government.
“Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would want to stop us from having compute capacity to develop AI?” O’Leary said. “Which adversary would want that? There’s only one. It’s China.”
He specifically targeted Alliance for a Better Utah and Elevate Strategies and several individual activists — but provided no evidence linking either to the Chinese government.
A month later, O’Leary shared a post on social media that pulled back the claims but fell short of apologizing.
“Recently, I appeared on various news programs and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party,” O’Leary wrote.
Fox News issues a series of apologies
In the days after his post, Fox News also spoke up. The news organization issued a retraction and apology on four programs over the weekend, on both Fox News and Fox Business.
On “The Big Weekend Show,” host Johnny Joey Jones mentioned O’Leary’s correction, saying, “He made certain claims relating to the opponents of his project. Mr. O’Leary has now corrected the record.”
Jones said Fox News similarly found no evidence of O’Leary’s claims and apologized on behalf of Fox News for the error.
This was not the first time Fox has had to take action for false information. In April 2023, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million after the company accused Fox of promoting lies about its role in the 2020 presidential election.
The controversy surrounding O’Leary’s data center project
The latest unfounded claims and retraction stem from the controversy surrounding O’Leary’s “Wonder Valley” project.
O’Leary has repeatedly defended plans to build the 10,000-acre data center on 40,000 acres of unincorporated land in rural Utah. However, amid controversy and political pushback, he agreed to scale back the project.
O’Leary was also asked to commit water to the Great Salt Lake and set aside thousands of acres for open space, wildlife protections and continued agricultural use.
Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams said O’Leary conceded to all those demands. The concessions haven’t stopped the backlash, however.
Utah residents filed a lawsuit against government officials and the special entity overseeing O’Leary’s data center earlier this month. They claim Box Elder County residents’ rights were violated and the entity overseeing the project is exercising powers as an unelected body “that the Utah Constitution never authorized.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
