WASHINGTON, D.C.—In response to petitions asking the FCC to deny the license renewal of WTXF-TV by Fox Television Stations, Fox has filed a brief with the FCC saying that any attempt to stop the license renewal would be “in violation of the First Amendment and the authority delegated to the Commission by Congress.”
Fox is facing a license renewal challenge for WTXF-TV in Philadelphia from the Media and Democracy Project and other critics of Fox News, which is owned by Fox Corporation, the parent company of both the cable news network and Fox's broadcast stations.
In a July 3 filing with the FCC, the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) cited court filings in the massive $781 million settlement Fox made with Dominion to ask the FCC to open an evidentiary inquiry into whether the company should be allowed to renew WTXF’s license and retain its other broadcast TV licenses.
The court documents in the Dominion libel suit and settlement showed that Fox News aired statements of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election that Fox news hosts and the management of Fox and Fox News knew were false, MAD said. Based on that evidence, MAD asked the FCC to launch an inquiry into whether the broadcast licenses should be renewed.
“Petitioners seek an evidentiary hearing that they are confident will result in findings of fact 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,” the petition concluded.
Fox Corp. owns both Fox News and 18 broadcast stations.
On July 31 former PBS President Ervin S. Duggan and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol also filed a joint informal objection to the broadcast license renewal application for Fox Corp-owned television station FOX 29 Philadelphia (WTXF-TV).
“As media veterans, we are acutely aware of the power afforded to those who control the information broadcast on our nation's airwaves," said Ervin S. Duggan. "Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch's role in perpetuating election falsehoods stands as a blatant violation of the character requirements expected of those the FCC entrusts to hold a broadcast license."
Preston Padden, a former top executive at Fox, and other critics have also come out in favor of blocking the license renewal.
In its August 2 filing, Fox’s lawyers argued that “given the lack of a prima facie case, entertaining MAD’s request for an evidentiary hearing on Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal application would amount to an unlawful re-writing of the Commission’s Character Policy Statement, decades of precedent implementing it, and Sections 309(d) and (k) of the Act. It also would, for the first time in history, have the Commission adjudicate a broadcast license renewal on the basis of cable network content, in violation of the First Amendment and the authority delegated to the Commission by Congress.”
“As the Commission has long understood, its role `in overseeing program content is limited’ because `[t]he First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 326 of the Act prohibit the Commission from censoring program material or interfering with broadcasters’ free speech rights,’” the filing noted.
“And, as explained by Chairwoman Rosenworcel a few years ago, the government making editorial decisions about content in the course of a broadcast license renewal proceeding `would be an affront to our First Amendment tradition,'" the Fox filing said.
"MAD has not set forth any facts that would justify departure from this long-held commitment to the First Amendment principles undergirding the regulation of broadcast media," Fox concluded. "Given the degree to which MAD has disregarded applicable precedent and established legal principles, together with an ongoing press campaign it and the member who served as the Petition’s declarant have built around the Petition, it is clear that MAD seeks to conscript the Commission into a public relations campaign that has no place in a broadcast license renewal proceeding. To the contrary, Congress and the Commission wisely designed the license renewal process to be impartial, focused, and subject to clear boundaries as to the scope of the Commission’s review. And amidst all of these fatal legal infirmities, MAD ignores the actual station at issue: Fox 29 Philadelphia, and its history of exceptional service to its viewers, airing over 60 hours of local programming every week, among many other public service benefits. The Commission should dismiss or deny MAD’s Petition and grant Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal without delay.”
