More Media Execs Back Effort To Pull Fox News’ Philly Broadcast License Over Election Fraud Lies

Last month we noted how media reform activists had petitioned the FCC to revoke Fox News’ local broadcast license in Philadelphia. More specifically, the group argued that Fox News’ rampant election fraud propaganda technically violated the “character clause” embedded in the Communications Act the FCC is supposed to use to determine whether an organization should hold a broadcast license.

As we noted at the time, this politically feckless FCC is never likely to act. Even if they did, it would only impact this singular Fox broadcast station (FOX 29 Philadelphia, WTXF-TV), and not meaningfully imperil Fox News’ broader mission to fill gullible peoples’ heads with hatred and pebbles.

Still, I’d argue it’s a worthwhile effort from a media campaign and public awareness perspective. So much of the conversation about “what to do about Fox News” (and the massive, deeply funded right wing propaganda apparatus more broadly) fixates exclusively on what’s not possible under the First Amendment. Rarely do you see much in the way of constructive ideas.

This group (the all volunteer-run Media and Democracy Project) is at least trying to be creative.

This week the effort got some additional support from former PBS President Ervin S. Duggan and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol (no stranger to political falsehoods himself), who filed a joint petition with the FCC in support of the effort:

“As media veterans, we are acutely aware of the power afforded to those who control the information broadcast on our nation’s airwaves,” said Ervin S. Duggan. “Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’s role in perpetuating election falsehoods stands as a blatant violation of the character requirements expected of those the FCC entrusts to hold a broadcast license.”

Again though, this current Rosenworcel FCC is so politically feckless, it can’t even acknowledge that telecom monopolies are real and harmful things. It’s simply never going to wade into this kind of political shitstorm. And it’s not clear you’d want it to; a second term Trump FCC could easily exploit this precedent to take aim at broadcasters critical of the GOP (not that there are many of those left).

As we noted last time, there’s a long list of things we could be doing to counter right wing propaganda (education reform, public funding of journalism, improved mental health care, creative financing for independent journalism, tougher media consolidation standards, actually staffing the FCC with folks who care about media diversity), we’re just not interested in it. Yet.

The real threat to Fox News’ right now? It’s not the Dominion or Smartmatic suits. It’s the growing shift away from bloated, expensive cable TV bundles and towards streaming. Without the massive infusion of billions of dollars from cable TV customers who pay for Fox News in a bundle but never watch it, the propaganda mill’s financial future looks decidedly less certain.