Several Philadelphia-area elected officials -- including Reps. Brendan Boyle (D) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R) -- supported Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia’s license renewal petition, in letters posted Friday in docket 23-393 (see 2308230053). A Media and Democracy Project (MAD) petition to deny renewal of the station -- also called Fox 29 -- “ignores Fox 29 Philadelphia’s long record of exemplary service to the communities,” Fox said. MAD argued a defamation suit brought against Fox over its 2020 election reporting shows the company isn’t fit to be an FCC licensee. WTXF provides “fact-based journalism and local programming which keeps our constituents safe and informed,” said Boyle and Fitzpatrick in a joint letter included in the filing. “Your news department has been professional, honest, and fair in their reporting,” said a letter from Camden, New Jersey, Mayor Victor Carstarphen (D). Pennsylvania state legislator Anthony Bellmon (D) also wrote in support of the station. “This service should be encouraged, not threatened by baseless license renewal challenges—particularly at a time when a rapidly evolving media marketplace is challenging local media across the nation,” said Fox.
The FCC granted a request from the Media and Democracy (MAD) Project to change the license renewal proceeding (see 2308220083) for Fox’s WTXF-TV Philadelphia from restricted to permit-but-disclose, said a public notice Wednesday. In restricted proceedings, ex parte presentations are generally prohibited, but they're allowed in permit-but-disclose if they're filed in the record. Fox opposed MAD’s request (see 2307180071. “We have concluded that classifying this proceeding as permit-but-disclose would, in this case, permit broader public participation and thereby serve the public interest,” said the PN. The WTXF- TV proceeding was assigned docket 23-293. “This wonderful decision will allow the broad bipartisan group of petitioners to meet with commissioners and staff,” said Preston Padden, a former Fox executive who supports the MAD petition. Emailed a Fox Television Stations spokesperson: “The Media and Democracy Project petition to deny the license renewal of WTXF-TV is frivolous, completely without merit and asks the FCC to upend the First Amendment and long-standing FCC precedent."
The FCC has the authority to designate Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia for hearing over the false reporting on the 2020 election by its parent company, said the Media and Democracy Project Tuesday in a filing in support of its petition to deny the station’s license renewal. “Designating a hearing on this basis would not be regulation of cable content any more than revoking a convicted felon’s broadcast license would be an intrusion into law enforcement and the judicial system,” said MAD.
The FCC should promptly dismiss the Media and Democracy Project’s petition to deny WTXF-TV Philadelphia’s license renewal, said Fox Television Stations in an opposition filing last week (see 2307310055). “MAD’s attempt to transform a civil defamation case into a license revocation action” would put the FCC “on a collision course with the First Amendment,” the filing said. MAD’s petition “attempts to make much of an unrelated, partially adjudicated civil defamation claim that concerned a cable network under common ownership with [Fox Television Stations],” said the filing. “An unrelated civil matter has no bearing on Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal application.” MAD hasn’t provided any information of the type the FCC traditionally considers in assessing the character qualifications of a broadcaster or its ownership, the filing said. Taking up MAD’s request for a hearing ”would amount to an unlawful rewriting of the Commission’s Character Policy Statement,” and “decades of precedent implementing it,” the filing said. “There is no obligation of a broadcast licensee more fundamental than the obligation to serve the public interest by truthfully informing viewers,” emailed former Fox and Disney executive and lobbyist Preston Padden, who's involved in the MAD petition. “If the character requirement of Section 308 (b) of the Communications Act and the Commission’s own character and news distortion policies are to have any meaning, this license renewal application must, at a minimum, be designated for a hearing.”
Conservative Editor William Kristol and former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan filed a joint informal objection in support of the Media and Democracy Project’s petition to deny the license renewal of Fox-owned and operated WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see Ref:2307060065]). Former Fox executive and longtime lobbyist Preston Padden also supports the petition. Duggan is also a former president of PBS, and Kristol, who founded and edited The Weekly Standard, is now editor at large for political news site The Bulwark. Both worked in the administrations of past U.S. presidents, Duggan for Lyndon Johnson and Kristol for George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. “We believe there are more than sufficient grounds alleged in the MAD Petition for the Commission to designate the pending WTXF-TV (‘Fox 29’) renewal application for a hearing,” said the joint filing. MAD has argued that information released during Dominion Voting System's legal proceeding against Fox --which ended in a settlement -- demonstrates that the network deliberately misled viewers about the 2020 election and Jan. 6 attack, thus violating little-used FCC rules against news distortion. “Doing so would enable the Commission to develop a record as to the problematic conduct of Fox 29’s parent, Fox Corporation.” The FCC’s policy on character requirements for broadcast licensees “provides the framework for the Commission to look beyond the four corners of an individual station’s record in licensing proceedings and to consider affiliated entities’ conduct when appropriate,” the filing said. The filing cites an ongoing license proceeding over character issues involving an AM radio station owned by a former Tennessee state legislator convicted of making false statements on a tax form (see 2303280039). The WTXF situation “presents the Commission with the opportunity to take a different tack with FOX stations than it has in the past -- one more consistent with the approach it frequently takes against smaller stations in less complex license renewal contexts," the filing said. Fox didn’t comment.
A Media and Democracy Project (MAD) request to alter the ex parte status of the license renewal proceeding for Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia is “procedurally improper” and would prejudice Fox’s rights in the renewal process (see 2307180071), said Fox Television Stations in a letter Wednesday. “It is exceedingly rare for the Commission to place a license renewal proceeding under the more permissive procedures for permit-but-disclose proceedings,” the letter said. MAD’s request to change the status of the proceeding “is just one symptom of this fatal flaw of the Petition,” Fox said. “Grant of MAD’s Petition to Deny would fundamentally and unlawfully alter the Commission’s rules and policies governing license renewals, including its well-established character policies.”
The FCC Media Bureau should change the status of the license renewal proceeding for Fox’s WTXF-TV Philadelphia from restricted to permit-but-disclose, said a letter Tuesday from the Media and Democracy Project (MAD). MAD has filed a petition to deny WTXF’s renewal (see 2307060065), and changing the proceeding’s status “would permit broader public participation” by other entities, the letter said. In restricted proceedings, ex parte presentations are generally prohibited but are allowed in permit-but-disclose if they are filed in the record. “Other public interest groups have contacted MAD and expressed an interest in participating in this proceeding.” Former Fox executive and lobbyist Preston Padden, who backs the MAD petition, has begun raising money online to fund the proceeding. Fox didn’t comment.
The FCC should promptly act on the Media and Democracy Project’s petition to deny the license of Fox station WTXF-TV Philadelphia, said the Media Action Center in an informal objection filed Thursday. The MAD petition isn't considered likely to lead to FCC action (see 2307060065). “It is not the marketplace, but the interests of the people that should determine what is broadcast,” said the filing. “Fox has failed in its duty to put the interests of the people it serves above its corporate profits.” MAD previously filed a petition against the renewal of the then-Entercom owned KDND Sacramento, which was designated for hearing over the death of a listener in radio contest, a matter cited by MAD in their petition against WTXF. Fox didn't comment.
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, said attorneys we spoke with. Said MAD: “Owning a broadcast station is more than a business -- it is a public trust. Never before has the Commission been confronted with so much evidence attached to a petition that clearly shows that an FCC broadcast licensee undermined that trust." The FCC has historically stayed out of broadcaster editorial decisions and isn’t likely to change that, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero.
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