Philly TV: Fox To FCC..License Challenge Is 1A Threat

Fox is invoking the First Amendment in its opposition to a challenge to its character qualifications to hold a Federal Communications Commission 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 WTXF Philadelphia, and by extension the company’s character qualifications for holding any TV station licenses at all, according to nexttv.com.

The  FCC is authorized to review a license applicant’s “citizenship, character, technical, financial and other qualifications.”  

According to a copy of its opposition to that challenge, filed with the FCC Wednesday (August 2), MAD has failed to make a case that Fox's license renewal should be denied and is treading dangerous ground.

Fox suggested that denying the renewal would be a case of the government trying to tell it how to run its news operation, quoting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel back when she was a commissioner and President Donald Trump was making threats about broadcast license challenges. “The First Amendment ensures that what we see on television, hear on the radio, read in print and interact with on the Internet is free from interference,” Rosenworcel once wrote. “No government official has the right to use their power to dictate what news organizations can say.”

While Fox concedes that broadcast speech has lesser protection from regulation than other content, thanks to the Supreme Court decision in the Red Lion case. But it says that in the context of license renewals, the FCC has signaled it will tread lightly, a precedent it says MAD does not recognize or respect.

Fox says that, First Amendment concerns aside, MAD has failed to articulate a claim against Fox TV Stations or WTXF, known on-air as Fox 29 Philadelphia. As to the lawsuit, it says: “MAD attempts to make much of an unrelated, partially adjudicated civil defamation claim that concerned a cable network under common ownership with FTS. Commission precedent is clear, however, that an unrelated civil matter has no bearing on Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal application.”

By its own count, Fox owns owns 29 full-power TV stations, including in 14 of the top 15 biggest markets, and owns duopolies — two stations — in the top three markets in the country, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.