In a letter to the FCC, former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and conservative commentator William Kristol, explain why they think defense of Rupert Murdoch and son Lachlan by Pennsylvania’s two Democratic senators is wrong.
Allergist/immunologist, baseball lover Milo Vassallo leads the Media and Democracy Project in a struggle with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Pennsylvania Democrats are rallying in support of Fox Corp. in its battle to retain ownership of its WTXF Philadelphia. On March 5, 16 members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives – all Democrats – sent a letter imploring the FCC to renew Fox 29’s license. The letter did not mention the license revocation controversy over Fox News Channel’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
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.
Fox Corp. is calling for the prompt renewal of its WTXF Philadelphia, saying recent attempts to influence the FCC’s review are legally defective in falling outside the agency’s policies and traditions in deciding the merits of a renewal. Fox’s lawyers pushed for FCC action in a letter today supportive of renewal of the license of WTXF. Fox claimed that the opposition’s reliance on court proceedings involving Fox News Channel had no legal bearing on the FCC’s renewal of a broadcast licensee.
Exclusives
A leader in the effort to strip Fox Corp. of a TV station license is renewing calls for a federal regulatory hearing based on recent developments in a defamation case about Fox News Channel’s 2020 election coverage. Former Fox executive Preston Padden, in a filing with the FCC Thursday, called on the agency to hold a hearing on Fox’s fitness to continue as the licensee of WTXF Philadelphia (Fox 29) based on revelations in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation case against Fox.
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.
Fox Corp.’s effort to protect its WTXF Philadelphia from license revocation just got some new local political support. Pennsylvania State Rep. Morgan Cephas sent a brief letter calling on the FCC to renew the license, which is being challenged over 2020 election reporting that aired on Fox News Channel and Fox stations around the country. The challenge to the license began last summer. Although Fox has asked for prompt renewal, the FCC has not acted.
Fox Television Stations is urging the FCC to renew the license of its WTXF Philadelphia “without delay,” claiming opponents have turned the renewal into a quarrel over issues that fall outside the scope of the agency’s review.
Fox is telling the FCC that documents its critics want the regulator to compel it to produce aren’t relevant to a challenge to the company’s license for WTXF Philadelphia — a challenge Fox says the commission should reject.
Three Democratic Philadelphia City Councilmembers have weighed in at the FCC in support of the license renewal application for Fox Corp.’s WTXF Philadelphia. The comments are in response to a […]
Harold Feld: “While getting the FCC to hold a hearing — let alone deny Fox29’s application for renewal — is certainly a long shot given how the FCC works, this is not a frivolous claim. To the contrary, it raises some very interesting questions from an FCC law perspective. So it is worth actually walking through the process here and what questions the FCC would need to resolve either to dismiss the petition to deny or to designate for a hearing. Because ultimately, unless the FCC finds a procedural deficiency, the FCC is going to have to actually write up a real and binding decision with real consequences and real precedential value.
Fox Corp. is pointing to support from a handful of legislators as it pushes back on an effort to challenge its qualifications to hold TV station licenses. In a filing with the FCC, Fox sent four letters from U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), as well as Camden, New Jersey Mayor Victor G. Carstarphen and Pennsylvania State Rep. Anthony Bellmon (D-Philadelphia), all praising the public service of WTXF, Fox’s Philadelphia O&O whose license has been challenged.
The challenge to Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia license is drawing a crowd, including founding president of Fox Broadcasting Jamie Kellner. Already this week Alfred Sikes, the Republican FCC chairman whose commission helped pave the way for the creation of a fourth network, registered his support for holding a hearing on Fox’s qualifications to be an FCC licensee. Now Kellner, along with former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and ex-Fox News Channel commentator Bill Kristol, former editor of The Weekly Standard, have joined the chorus of Fox critics.
Alfred Sikes is the latest figure to urge the commission to study whether Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch meet the character qualification to remain broadcast licensees.
KYW, WPSG, WPVI, WCAU, WTXF and WUVP are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.
Ervin Duggan and William Kristol join effort challenging renewal application of Fox O&O WTXF Philadelphia.
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.
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.”
Tech executives from Fox News, Fox Television Stations, WPVI Philadelphia and LiveU are shifting away from traditional microwave and satellite technology and finding other IP-native paths to send live and edited video, they told an audience at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum last week. Above (l-r): LiveU’s Mike Savello, Fox News’ Scott Wilder, WPVI’s Elizabeth Plyler and Fox Television Stations’ Erik Smith (Alyssa Wesley photo). Read a full report here and/or watch the video above.
Fox-owned WTXF Philadelphia has added Shiba Russell as evening anchor. Effective Aug. 15, she will anchor the station’s weekday 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts alongside […]
New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings in upper station management, marketing and creative services, news, IT, digital sales and content, engineering and graphic design.
TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Bill Anderson, host of The Pulse on Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia and Fox Soul, about how video podcasts can be a Swiss Army knife for local broadcasters’ content needs, especially as they ramp up streaming efforts.
Fox O&O WTXF Philadelphia has launched Save Our Streets, a community-focused, station-wide project that engages with residents, public officials and even ex-offenders to try to resolve the alarming increase in gun violence in the city and the surrounding area.
Executives from ABC News, Fox Television Stations, WCBS and FX Design Group will look at how widespread remote production has charted a new path forward for news operations at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum on Dec. 14, presented in-person at the New York Hilton and virtually. Register here.
Fox O&O WTXF Philadelphia has hired Shaynah Ferreira as a reporter and fill-in anchor for various newscasts, including Good Day Philadelphia. She begins Aug. 23. Most recently, Ferreira was a […]
Fox-owned WTXF Philadelphia will debut a locally produced, original program, The Feed AT Night. Beginning Jan. 4, 2021, this half-hour program, hosted by Alex Holley and Thomas Drayton, will air […]
The host of the Fox Philadelphia O&O’s Good Day Philadelphia announced today on Facebook that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently quarantining.
