Fox News anchor Howard Kurtz on Sunday finally weighed in on a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against his employer.
Kurtz previously said he “strongly” disagreed with the conservative network’s decision not to allow him to report or write about the case because he was part of the organization being sued.
But that changed this weekend.
“Now all the legal filings and the judge in Delaware will give insight this month whether the case goes to trial, it’s time for me to weigh in,” Kurtz said.
During a four-minute segment on the “MediaBuzz” show, Kurtz said he was not “covering up” Dominion’s allegations “or the fact that Fox has been affected in the court of public opinion.”
But he said the lawsuit is “the ultimate test of the First Amendment.”
“Legally, Dominion has to prove Fox acted maliciously or ignored the truth,” he said. “There was, of course, direct reporting from the news division, which also caused friction.”
A court filing by Dominion revealed that top Fox News anchors and executives personally condemned the election spread by Donald Trump and his allies regarding the 2020 election, but still chose to expand on the network.
“Sidney is a lunatic. No one will work with him. Ditto with Rudy,” wrote Laura Ingraham in a text message to fellow anchor Tucker Carlson in reference to former Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
In another message, Carlson told an unidentified person that it was “shockingly reckless” to claim that Dominion acted to rig the election in favor of current President Joe Biden without evidence.
But Kurtz cautioned that Trump’s personal dismissal of the election doesn’t mean the network can’t report or comment on “the best presidential show ever saying the election was stolen.”
“That’s why this case is the ultimate test of the First Amendment,” Kurtz added.
Dominion is suing Fox News for defamation, alleging that the network intentionally exaggerated false allegations about the company’s voting machine to boost ratings.
The network later accused Dominion of running a PR campaign to “inflame” “and trample on free speech.”
During the show, Kurtz seemed to recognize that the network was concerned about alienating viewers.
“The period under review began when Fox’s ratings dropped after the network thought Joe Biden had won Arizona, and despite tremendous pressure, the network stuck with the decision desk’s accurate call,” Kurtz said.
Fox was the first network to call Arizona for Biden, but the decision did not sit well even within the organization. Fox News anchor Bret Baier reportedly called on higher-ups to reverse the call.