Gavin Newson Calls Fox News 'Propaganda Network' Amid Defamation Lawsuit

Gavin Newsom says Fox News has gone off the deep end ... purely peddling the Trump administration's propaganda these days -- and, he's calling for an apology in regards to the defamation lawsuit he filed.

The Governor of California joined Brian Tyler Cohen on his podcast Friday ... and, he told Brian he doesn't like to use the courts in situations like this -- but, he felt it was finally time to fight the "propaganda network."

Governor Newsom says he's willing to let the network off the hook if he receives an on-air apology for the story they ran claiming he lied about calling President Trump ... but, if not, he's ready to let the lawyers duke it out in court.

The governor brings up Fox's settlement in the defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems ... where Fox paid out $787 million to the company after airing false statements about the company's voting machines.

Worth noting ... Governor Newsom's suing Fox for $787 million -- a little tongue-in-cheek joke, it seems.

ICYMI ... Newsom's suing the network for a story they ran where host Jesse Watters accused the governor of lying about not having spoken to Trump -- when Newsom was clear the two hadn't spoken "a day ago" as DJT claimed in an Oval Office interview.

It's all pretty technical ... but, it's clearly got Newsom riled up -- so much so, he seems to be calling on Watters to fire someone over the alleged deceptive video edits.

Our own Harvey Levin and renowned celeb defense attorney Mark Geragos discussed the lawsuit on our latest episode of the "2 Angry Men" podcast ... and, as you can imagine, they've got some strong opinions on this one.

Fox News told us in a statement yesterday, "Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.”