The trial in the high-profile Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News begins on Tuesday. “Media Buzz” host Howard Kurtz discussed the reaction from the mainstream media during Sunday’s program. Kurtz said much of the press is rooting for Fox to lose the case.
“I can assure you that I will provide fair and down-the-middle coverage of this $1.6 billion lawsuit about coverage of false election fraud claims in 2020 despite working here,” Kurtz stated.
Kurtz talked about Abby Grossberg, a now-fired Fox News producer who has filed a separate lawsuit against Fox News, claiming that she had audio recordings of Maria Bartiromo interviewing former President Donald Trump and former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. She has accused the network of withholding that evidence.
“A Fox spokesperson said the network didn’t even know about these tapes until March 20th,” Kurtz said. “Two of the recordings were played in court and leaked to MSNBC. One of them, when Maria [Bartiromo] asked for proof of some fraud accusations that Giuliani was making, said what about this Dominion software? He hesitated and stated, that’s a little harder.”
Kurtz asserted that Judge Davis damaged part of the network’s defense by ruling that Fox News could not argue that it carried false allegations of election fraud by Trump allies just because they were newsworthy.
“Judge Davis said just because someone is newsworthy doesn’t mean you can defame someone. Fox also contends that other network hosts and guests told viewers there’s no convincing evidence that the election had been rigged.”
In a ruling favorable to Fox, Davis ruled Dominion cannot bring up January 6th except in the most narrow circumstances because the Capitol riot is not part of the trial.
