WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the license renewal for Fox Television Stations’ WTXF-TV attracts more opposition, the FCC has established a public docket and decided to classify the ex parte status of proceedings as “permit but disclose,” a move the agency said “permit broader public participation and thereby serve the public interest.”
Following the April 3 application by Fox Television Stations, LLC to renew the license of station WTXF-TV, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Media and Democracy Project (MAD); Milo Vassallo; John McGinty; Peter Lems; Chenjerai Kumanyika; and Bill Hartman filed a petition on July 3 to deny the Application.
That petition cited the erroneous reporting by Fox News regarding the 2020 presidential election that forced Fox News to pay a $781 million liable settlement to Dominion Voting Systems. Based on the lies leading to that settlement, the Media and Democracy Project argued that Fox was unfit to hold a television license. Both Fox News and the Fox Television Stations are owned by Fox Corp., which is controlled by the Murdoch family.
Since then others have filed informal objections, including the former president of Fox Broadcasting Jamie Kellner, Alfred Sikes, a former Republican FCC chairman, former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and ex-Fox News Channel commentator Bill Kristol.
Preston Padden, a former top executive at Fox, and other critics have also come out in favor of blocking the license renewal.
On August 2, 2023 Fox filed arguments against the petition, raising First Amendment arguments against the objections to the station renewal. Denying the renewal “would, for the first time in history, have the Commission adjudicate a broadcast license renewal on the basis of cable network content, in violation of the First Amendment and the authority delegated to the Commission by Congress,” the petition argued.
On July 18, 2023, MAD also filed a request asking that the Commission change the ex parte status of the WTXF-TV Application proceeding from restricted to permit-but-disclose. On July 19, 2023, Fox Television Stations filed an opposition to that request.
The FCC, however, decided to change the status.
“Applications for renewal of broadcast licenses are subject, unless otherwise provided, to treatment by the Commission as restricted proceedings for ex parte purposes under Section 1.1208 of the Commission’s rules,” the FCC reported. “Pursuant to section 1.1200(a) of the Commission’s rules, however, the Commission may adopt modified ex parte procedures in particular proceedings if the public interest so requires. 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.”
The new public docket is MB Docket No. 23-293.
