And there it is: the difference between CNN’s ex-fake media ethics watchdog Brian Stelter, and current Fox News media ethics reporter Howard Kurtz, whom Stelter succeeded as host of “Reliable Sources.”

Kurtz informed his viewers today that his network will not allow him to cover details in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox. On his show “MediaBuzz,” Kurtz announced that his bosses are not allowing him to report on the case, despite his conclusion thati t is a “major media story.” (Of course it is.) So, he says, he cannot talk about the case at this time, but will let his audience know if that policy changes.

Kurtz’s reputation and integrity are at stake, and he owed it to viewers to explain why he seemed to be acting like Stelter, who essentially ignored any example of unethical journalism at CNN, of which there were legions. Already Kurtz had been criticized for not mentioning, in “MediaBuzz” the previous weekend, the court filing showing that top executives at Fox News and major hosts on the network privately ridiculed former President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, while suggesting that fact checks critical of the President’s beliefs would alienate the network’s audience.

I was, in fact, preparing an Ethics Alarms post critical of Kurtz for behaving in a Stelter-like fashion in ducking the story. For once, my tardiness paid off. Now I know that Kurtz was ordered to bury that story…because he had the courage to say so in public.

You can say what you want about Fox News, and a lot of the nasty stuff might be true. It does, however, unlike CNN, NPR, ABC, NBC, CBS and God knows, MSNBC, have a real, live, professional media ethics critic doing a responsible job.

At least it has one for the moment…