The FCC should yank the 27 U.S. TV licenses of News...
The FCC should yank the 27 U.S. TV licenses of News Corp. because of allegations in a U.K. House of Commons committee report that Chairman Rupert Murdoch isn’t fit to run a major international company due to phone hacking by…
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reporters at the company’s British publications, a nonprofit American group said. “While you have stated previously the FCC will not get involved with this matter, further inaction is no longer a viable option,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Executive Director Melanie Sloan wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The group asked the House and Senate Commerce committees to hold hearings on whether Murdoch and his son James meet the FCC’s character standards for broadcast licensees. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., asked the head of a U.K. judicial investigation into the alleged hacking if it found new information suggesting the conduct “involved U.S. citizens or violated U.S. laws,” he said in a news release. Has the probe found the same “unethical and sometimes illegal business practices” in America as allegedly took place in Britain, Rockefeller asked (http://xrl.us/bm52e4) inquiry head Brian Leveson. News Corp.’s board has “full confidence in Rupert Murdoch’s fitness and support for his continuing to lead News Corporation into the future as its Chairman and CEO,” the company said Wednesday after directors met. The board believes Murdoch has “demonstrated resolve to address the mistakes of the Company identified in the Select Committee’s report,” the company said (http://xrl.us/bm5z82). “If the Murdochs don’t meet the British standards of character test, it is hard to see how they can meet the American standard,” Sloan said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bm5zy6). A News Corp. spokesman had no comment. The commission isn’t expected to yank the licenses (CD July 19 p6).