Allergist/immunologist, baseball lover Milo Vassallo leads the Media and Democracy Project in a struggle with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
WTXF Philadelphia owner Fox Corp. says the main party trying to revoke its license has resorted to “gimmicks” and “stunts” that should be cast aside by the FCC. Fox is embroiled in a dispute with an organization called the Media and Democracy Project that wants the commission to revoke the license over allegations that Fox News Channel aired falsehoods about voting technology used to tabulate votes during the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
Federal regulators continue to face outside pressure to take steps to revoke Fox Corp.’s TV station license in Philadelphia in connection with 2020 presidential election coverage aired on Fox News Channel. The Media and Democracy Project (MAD) – which is demanding that the FCC revoke the operating license of WTXF – filed a comment with the agency on March 1 urging it to “act swifty” to begin a public hearing as a first step toward ultimate revocation. MAD’s comment did not appear on the FCC’s website until March 4.
Former Republican FCC Chairman Al Sikes and other representatives of the group demanding that the FCC revoke the license of Fox-owned WTXF Philadelphia visited FCC officials in Washington yesterday to press their case. The Media and Democracy Project (MAD) argues that the Murdoch family that controls the station and Fox News is unfit to hold broadcast licenses because of the news network’s role in promoting Trump’s false claim that he lost the presidency in 2020 because of a rigged election. The contingent (l-r): David Goodfriend, adviser to MAD; Bill Kristol, former editor of conservative, Murdoch-owned The Weekly Standard; Art Belendiuk; counsel to MAD; Milo Vassallo, executive director, MAD; Preston Padden, former Fox executive and Murdoch lobbyist; Bill Reyner, former counsel to Murdoch/Fox; and Sikes.
Fox is invoking the First Amendment in its opposition to a challenge to its character qualifications to hold an FCC broadcast license. The Media and Democracy Project (MAD), citing Fox’s settlement of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit over election misinformation, last month challenged the renewal of Fox’s WTFX Philadelphia, and by extension Fox’s character qualifications for holding any TV station licenses at all. According to a copy of its opposition to that challenge, filed with the FCC Wednesday (Aug. 2), Fox says MAD has failed to make a case that Fox’s license renewal should be denied and is treading dangerous ground.
The Murdochs Are Awful. But Don’t Punish Fox O&Os For It.
Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch undermined trust in American democracy with their reckless propagation of Trump’s Big Lie, but Fox’s O&Os shouldn’t be in the FCC’s crosshairs to pay for it, as a watchdog group would have it.
Exclusives
Preston Padden, Bill Reyner and Ken Solomon in a joint statement today said “Murdoch made it very clear … that he understood that the 2020 election had not been stolen. Nonetheless, during the same time period, Fox [News] continued to perpetuate the ‘Big Lie’ and promote the Jan 6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally in D.C.”
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.”
