FOX: Action Against WTXF Would Create 'Perilous Regulatory Environment'
FCC action against Fox station WTXF Philadelphia's license would create a “perilous regulatory environment” and expose broadcasters to constant threats against their licenses, Fox said in a letter to the FCC Tuesday. The letter responded to recent filings from former…
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Fox and Disney executive Preston Padden seeking to add to the FCC record filings from an ongoing defamation case against Fox by the Smartmatic voting machine company (see 2401250072). Padden is part of the Media and Democracy Project effort against WTXF’s license renewal. The Smartmatic case and a settlement Fox reached with Dominion voting machine company don’t involve allegations of conduct that violates the FCC’s character policy and neither case includes a final adjudication against Fox, the Fox letter said. The FCC “can and should deny MAD’s petition on the basis that no claim has been pled that is recognized by the Commission’s own precedent or the Communications Act.” A broadcast license renewal proceeding “is not a venue for adjudicating cable network content,” said Fox. The FCC character policy includes provisions where the agency can consider a licensee's egregious misconduct outside the broadcasting context, Padden wrote in an email. Fox countered that if broadcast licenses can be threatened “based solely on unadjudicated allegations made by a third party in an unrelated civil proceeding,” the FCC process could easily be abused “in attempts to silence disfavored speakers across the political spectrum.” Fox added: “Fortunately, MAD’s law is not the law of the Commission or Congress.” In additional comments filed Wednesday, Padden said: "Leaving aside the indisputable fact that Fox News Channel reports and stories ARE broadcast by the Fox Owned Television Stations including WTXF, I respectfully submit that the Murdochs and Fox are simply flat wrong in arguing that their actions in businesses other than the television stations are not relevant to evaluation of their Character for broadcast licensing purposes."