A Fox News host has said the network is not allowing him to cover the $1.6bn defamation lawsuit filed against it by Dominion Voting Systems over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election.
Howard Kurtz, while presenting his weekly media show MediaBuzz on Sunday, said the network had forbidden him from covering the case.
Mr Kurtz’s statement comes after his show last week did not cover the case.
“Some of you have been asking why I’m not covering the Dominion voting machines lawsuit against Fox involving the unproven claims of election fraud in 2020 and it’s absolutely a fair question,” he said.
“I believe I should be covering it, it’s a major media story, given my role here at Fox. But the company has decided that as part of the organisation being sued, I can’t talk about it or write about it, at least for now.”
“I strongly disagree with that decision. But as an employee, I have to abide by it.”
The lawsuit against Fox News includes private text messages and accuses Fox of endorsing claims made by Donald Trump that the electoral contest was “rigged” to ensure victory for Joe Biden, despite seemingly knowing they were false.
“Yet despite knowing the truth – or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth – Fox spread and endorsed these ‘outlandish voter fraud claims’ about Dominion even as it internally recognised the lies as ‘crazy’, ‘absurd’ and ‘shockingly reckless’,” the filing said.
The network has maintained that the revelations are “noise” and claimed freedom of speech was at the core of the case.
“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v Sullivan,” said a Fox spokesperson in a statement in response to last week’s filing.
The company has also filed a counter claim stating that the case was filed to “punish” Fox News.
“Dominion brought this lawsuit to punish the Fox News Network for reporting on one of the biggest stories of the day – allegations by the sitting president of the United States and his surrogates that the 2020 election was affected by fraud,” the company stated in a counterclaim.
Mr Kurtz told his viewers that he was not permitted to address any of the developments on the air.
“If that changes, I’ll let you know,” he said.
