MAD Petition Against Fox Station Gains Sikes' Support, Still Seen a Long-Shot
The FCC has the authority to designate Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia for hearing over the false reporting on the 2020 election by its parent company, said the Media and Democracy Project Tuesday in a filing in support of its petition to deny the station’s license renewal. “Designating a hearing on this basis would not be regulation of cable content any more than revoking a convicted felon’s broadcast license would be an intrusion into law enforcement and the judicial system,” said MAD.
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The FCC’s conduct policy “provides that under certain circumstances the misconduct of a parent corporation or its non-broadcast subsidiary reflects on the character of its broadcast subsidiary,” said MAD. The group’s latest filing also notes late-filed political ad documents in WTXF’s online public file. Since Fox certified that the online file is complete, the errors show “its propensity for untruthfulness,” MAD said. Fox didn’t comment.
Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said he’s not surprised the MAD effort isn’t considered likely to succeed. The rare instances when the agency has found entities unfit to hold licenses have usually involved convictions for serious crimes, while Fox’s court proceeding with Dominion Voting systems -- which MAD cites as grounds for its petition -- concerned defamation and ended with a settlement, he said. “I’m not sure that’s evidence of anything,” Furchtgott-Roth said. Taking action against a station over news content of its parent is "a third rail" the agency is extremely unlikely to touch, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero.
MAD upped the pressure on the agency this week with filings of support from Republican former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes and founding Fox Broadcasting Co. President Jamie Kellner. They join several other former Fox executives and prominent conservatives in urging the FCC to take action (see 2307310055. Former Fox lobbyist Preston Padden, who provided testimony for MAD’s initial petition, told us those endorsing the petition contacted him and volunteered their support.
“Unlike the news feeds provided today by Fox News Channel, our news feeds did not prominently feature advocates like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell spouting nonsensical lies about a Presidential election,” wrote Kellner. “The behavior of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, highlighted in the MAD petition, raises a first principles question,” wrote Sikes. “Is truthful conduct a part of the standard?” Conservative editor William Kristol and Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan pressed the FCC further Tuesday with a supplementary filing, saying the agency’s action on the petition would show “whether its standards are genuine, or mere shibboleths; whether its regulatory spine is strong, or made of mush.”
“I genuinely regret that the good faith bipartisan effort of multiple parties to urge an FCC hearing on Fox creates an uncomfortable situation for the agency,” emailed Padden. “But it would be a tragedy for our democracy if Fox is considered too big and too politically powerful to be held accountable for an unequivocal Judicial finding that it presented false news.”