Leading First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams claims federal regulators have “amply basis” to revoke Fox Corp.’s license for WTXF Philadelphia over 2020 election falsehoods aired on Fox News Channel and various Fox-owned TV stations. Abrams said he came to his conclusion after reviewing presiding Delaware Judge Eric Davis’s determinations about Fox’s journalism in the Dominion Voting System defamation case and submissions in the same case by the Media and Democracy Project about the conduct of Fox executives over 2020 election reporting by Fox News Channel.
A former Sinclair employee has sent a letter to the FCC, asking it to revoke the stations group’s licenses over “questions about Sinclair’s commitment to journalistic integrity, diversity, and compliance with FCC regulations.”
Regulators invited public comment on whether the U.S. broadcast license for Fox Corp.’s TV station in Philadelphia should be renewed after a grassroots organization asked that it be denied, saying Fox knowingly broadcast false news about the 2020 election.
A petition from the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) and former Fox executive Preston Padden asking the FCC to hold a hearing over and block a Fox-owned TV station’s license renewal isn’t likely to lead to agency action and would raise First Amendment concerns if it did, according to communications attorneys.
The group asks the FCC to deny the station’s license renewal application, alleging that senior management of Fox Corp. “manipulated its audience by knowingly broadcasting false news about the 2020 election. Its intentional and chronic news distortion further divided the country, sowing discord that was a contributing factor to the attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
FCC Issues Guidance On TV License Renewals
The FCC issued public notices this week on the license renewal process for both radio and television operators. The Public Notice on television renewals was perhaps more significant, as it addressed several issues and procedures for the television renewal process which begins with the filing of renewals for stations located in Maryland, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia, to be submitted to the FCC no later than June 1 of this year.
