Fox News’ Kurtz Breaks Network’s Silence on Dominion Suit: ‘Fox Has Taken a Hit’ in Court of Public Opinion, But Has a ‘Vigorous 1st Amendment Defense’
Two weeks after speaking out against his network’s decision to forbid him from discussing the $1.6 billion defamation suit filed by Dominion voting systems, Fox News Host Howard Kurtz addressed the civil case on his show Sunday.
In a four-minute segment at the midway point of Kurtz’s MediaBuzz, the host discussed the lawsuit against Fox News — marking the first time that he or anyone else has covered the case on the network.
Kurtz, who later posted the segment on Twitter, noted the network has a “vigorous 1st Amendment defense” in the case.
However, Kurtz also acknowledged the perception generated by the numerous explosive revelations to come out of the case thus far have hardly served the network well.
“I’m not sugarcoating the allegations in this $1.6 billion suit,” Kurtz said. “Or the fact that Fox has taken a hit in the court of public opinion.”
Kurtz went on to relay the company’s latest statement in response to the most recent filings in the case.
“Dominion has been caught red handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press,” the network said. “We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.”
The Fox News host went on to point out that the latest filings in the case show Maria Bartiromo invited Dominion CEO John Poulos on her show, but he declined. He also noted that 75 percent of Dominion was sold in 2018 for $38 million. Dominion is seeking damages from Fox which are roughly 30 times its 2018 valuation.
Overall, Kurtz defended Fox covering President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him.
“There was, to be sure, straight reporting by the news division which also caused some friction,” Kurtz said. “But the fact that some people in the chain of command privately dismissed the fraud claims as nuts, or outlandish, or insane doesn’t necessarily mean Fox couldn’t cover and comment on the extremely newsworthy skeptical of the president saying election was stolen. That’s why the case is a major test of the first amendment.
