Reporting on the news that Dominion Voting Systems has settled a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Howard Kurtz said some of the network’s own statements it aired about the 2020 presidential election were “obviously false.”
Kurtz joined Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto on “Your World” on Tuesday to cover the news. After reading the statement of the right-wing network on the matter, which is listening to the statement admitting that Fox News has broadcast false claims about Dominion, Kurtz explained that the small center is based on false claims that Dominion’s voting machine was rigged.
“Former President Trump and his allies made this case on Fox and elsewhere, that they stole the vote from Donald Trump and stole it for Joe Biden. That is clearly false. This is a conspiracy theory,” he said.
“But the case will turn on whether Fox has done due diligence, whether it was reckless, whether it was just reporting, as the network says, on something very important that the president of the United States has denied.
In one of its main defenses, the network argued that the conduct was protected under the First Amendment and that the host had the right to cover the news. However, private correspondence uncovered during the lawsuit suggests that some of the network’s top hosts and executives were skeptical of the exaggerated claims and sometimes endorsed them on air.
The $787.5 million settlement was reached on the same day the case was set to go to trial, after Fox News reportedly made an earlier push to settle the case. Dominion has sued for $1.6 billion, accusing the media company of defamation by promoting lies about its role in the 2020 election despite knowing the allegations were untrue.
Kurtz, a Fox News media pundit and host of “Media Buzz,” had reported in February that his employer had banned him from covering the lawsuit, which he called one of the most important media cases in decades. That seems to have changed; there, which is reported in the looming trial, which is not looking good for Fox News in the lead-up.