Fox News host Howard Kurtz criticized his own network's coverage of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, blasting the network for elevating Bundy's anti-government agenda and turning the lawless rancher into a folk hero before falling silent when Bundy's racist remarks came to light.

Fox News darling Cliven Bundy rose to his folk hero status after he failed to comply with court orders directing him to remove his trespassing cattle from public land, following decades of refusing to pay required grazing fees. Fox News and other right-wing media elevated the story with substantial coverage, championing Bundy and his supporters as they threatened violence against federal law enforcement officials.

But when Cliven Bundy revealed his racist worldview, Fox News fell silent, abruptly ending their incessant promotion of the lawless rancher. The New York Times first reported that Bundy had questioned whether black Americans were “better off as slaves” or “better off under government subsidy,” and Media Matters quickly obtained video of the racist remarks.

On the April 27 edition his Fox News show #MediaBuzz, Kurtz posited that Fox News “fell seriously short” in their coverage of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy once his “blatantly racist” comments were revealed, after having previously built Bundy up “as a symbol of resistance”:

In a panel discussion, Dana Milbank of The Washington Post and the Daily Caller's Matt Lewis similarly criticized Fox's coverage, crediting the network with elevating Bundy's story and turning him into “sort of a folk hero.” Lewis criticized the substandard coverage as a “net-negative” for the conservative movement. Kurtz agreed, adding that this type of inferior coverage serves as “ammunition to Fox's detractors.”

Though the network remained silent on Bundy's racist remarks for several hours, Fox hosts and contributors eventually condemned Bundy's blatant racism.