Fox News Host Says Network Won’t Let Him Cover Dominion Lawsuit

Fox News Channel host Howard Kurtz told viewers his network has forbidden him to discuss the defamation lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems—a story which has produced an avalanche of damaging stories about the network. “I believe I should be covering it,” he said Sunday. “It’s a major media story.”

Kurtz hosts Media Buzz, a panel discussion program that focuses on media, and which on Sunday covered the media’s reporting on President Biden’s trip to Ukraine, and how the cable news networks reported on Donald Trump. Kurtz said viewers would be right to ask why the Dominion story didn’t make the cut. “The company has decided that as part of the organization being sued, I can’t talk about it or write about it—at least for now,” adding “I strongly disagree with that decision. But as an employee, I have to abide by it.”

Dominion sued Fox for defamation and is seeking $1.6 billion in damages, claiming the network knowingly aired false information about the company’s voting machines and software during Fox’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election and President Trump’s claims of election fraud. In a recent court filing, Dominion included leaked emails and text messages that showed Fox News hosts, producers and executives dismissed Trump’s false claims of a “rigged” election, even as they aired those same claims on Fox’s top-rated prime time shows.

The network argued in its own court filing that the Dominion suit is an attack on the First Amendment. “In its coverage, Fox News fulfilled its commitment to inform fully and comment fairly,” the network said in its filing. “Some hosts viewed the president’s claims skeptically; others viewed them hopefully; all recognized them as profoundly newsworthy.”

The Dominion story has unsurprisingly been covered extensively by Fox News Channel’s cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC, which devoted segments to the leaked emails and texts, with a guest on MSNBC’s The Katie Phang Show saying that Fox hosts “were intentionally peddling lies,” and CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy—in a segment on the network’s CNN This Morning—saying “I think the messages exposed Fox as a propaganda network. That’s what they do at their core.”

Fox’s order to Kurtz not to talk about the Dominion case is revealing, as it suggests that the network is concerned that the leaked emails and other revelations in the suit may be doing serious damage to the network, the most powerful in cable news. As NPR’s David Folkenflik put it on Morning Edition, “a sense of desperation pervades the private notes from Fox’s top stars, reflecting an obsession with collapsing ratings” in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s loss on election day, when Fox drew criticism from conservatives for calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

After calling Arizona, Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott texted Lachlan Murdoch, the Fox Corp. co-chairman, that “the AZ [call] was damaging but we will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them.”

Media Buzz frequently takes time to dissect segments on CNN and MSNBC—the show featured a segment on “the long decline of CNN” on Sunday—so it’s particularly notable that Fox has decided not to let Kurtz talk about Dominion or the way media outlets like CNN and MSNBC have been covering the story and what the suit might mean for the future of Fox News.

Issuing a blanket ban on covering the lawsuit may indicate the network has decided there’s nothing to be gained—even in attacking the way networks like CNN and MSNBC have seemed to relish in reporting on those emails—and that beyond tightly-scripted statements, Fox believes the less said, the better.