The Rupert Murdoch-owned company still has problems, as a petition has been filed with the Federal Communications Commission to deny the broadcast license renewal of Fox Corp-owned Philadelphia TV station FOX 29 over its parent company’s “misdeeds.” Via Deadline:
Led in part by former Fox Broadcasting Company executive Preston Padden, the petition from The Media and Democracy Project cites the bracing revelations out of the Dominion case and Fox News’ trumpeting of Trump’s Stop the Steal efforts as perpetuating “false news about the 2020 election.”
“Based on extensive record evidence including internal emails and texts, a court has held that the senior management of Fox Television Stations repeatedly disseminated false news,” the July 3 dated filing states (read it here). “To the best of Petitioners’ knowledge, never before has the Commission been confronted with such a judicial finding against an applicant for renewal of a license to broadcast over the public airwaves,” it goes on to say.
After months of a torrent of damning documents tainting the likes of the elder Murdoch, his execs, and the likes of past and present hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo, Fox Corp settled with Dominion for millions and with a tightly parsed statement just as the trial was starting on April 18. Viewing the payment as an admission unto itself and referencing emails that Rupert Murdoch sent to Padden after the 2020 election, the Media and Democracy Project petition believes the company’s conduct “warranting Commission denial of FOX’s renewal application, revocation of its broadcast licenses, and a determination that FOX lacks the character qualifications required of licensees.”
“Owning a broadcast station is more than a business – it is a public trust,” the 20-page petition adds. “It is crucial to our democracy that broadcasting remain a trusted source of news. A company that knowingly and repeatedly presents false news just to placate its core viewers undermines that sense of trust. The false news presented by Fox has done grievous damage to our country and its citizens.”
I wrote about Padden last month.
I don't believe there's a snowball's chance in hell of them actually denying the license, mostly because Fox29 is probably the only local broadcast station that makes more than a superficial attempt to cover local news and politics. And they do a decent job keeping bias out of their coverage! (Except for Steve Keely, one of their reporters, who seems to be a stand-in for the angry old white man crowd.) I call to complain if they cross a line, and it's been years since I felt compelled to do so.
They do, however, run Fox News Sunday, and that's a problem. I don't watch that mess, precisely because I know how infuriatingly misleading it will be.
The FCC won't take this challenge seriously. With Biden's nominee Gigi Sohn still languishing, it's unlikely.
“You could have appointed Mother Teresa and if she’s the fifth vote it doesn’t matter, she’s not getting through,” said Greg Guice, the director of government affairs for Public Knowledge, an advocacy organization that Sohn co-founded.
Even lobbyists admit it.
“It’s far better for industry to have a tied commission really no matter who it is,” said an industry lobbyist who has represented several of the largest telecom firms at the center of the campaign against Sohn.
