FCC allows for public comment on petition to deny Fox 29′s broadcast license

The Federal Communications Commission is allowing public comment on a recently filed petition seeking to deny the broadcast license renewal for the Philadelphia-based Fox 29, marking a rare step for the near-century-old agency.

Filed in July, the petition comes from the Media and Democracy Project, a self-described nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on media issues. In its petition, the group asked the FCC to deny renewal of Fox 29′s broadcast license — set to expire this month — because Fox broadcast “knowingly false narratives about the 2020 election” on Fox News Channel, its cable station. A “good deal” of that narrative, MAD said, was then rebroadcast on Fox 29, specifically through the rebroadcast of Fox News Sunday on the Philadelphia station.

As a result, MAD contends, Fox Corp. violated the FCC’s policy on licensee character qualifications, and that it isn’t fit to maintain a broadcast license. Fox Corp. objected to the petition earlier this month, saying in a filing that MAD “fails to offer any credible support” to its claims that Fox 29′s broadcasts were run irresponsibly.

MAD is seeking “an evidentiary hearing into Fox’s misdeeds,” according to the petition. No other Fox stations are set to renew their licenses until 2028. But, while the FCC allows petitions to deny renewals, it is unusual that they are acted upon.

Now, with the FCC’s latest move, the process is set to be more transparent and open to the public.

People who want to comment can do so on the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System website by clicking the “+New Filing” or “+Express” links on the left side of the page for the docket. No deadline is specified.

MAD filed a request for an open proceeding in mid-July, saying that additional public interest groups hoped to participate. The petition, it added, dealt not only with Fox’s operation of Fox 29 locally, but also addressed “the broader question of whether Fox retains the basic qualifications” of being an FCC license holder.

Ordinarily, FCC license renewal proceedings are restricted and not open to public comment. It can, however, modify those proceedings “if the public interest so requires,” the FCC said in announcing the change.

Fox objected to MAD’s request, writing in a filing with the FCC that license renewal proceedings “are not vehicles for debating broader policy questions.” As a result, the company contended, the request was “procedurally improper and contrary to established commission practice.”

More than 30 comments on the petition have been submitted through the FCC website, including letters supporting the renewal, provided by Fox Television Stations, from local leaders such as U.S. Reps. Brendan F. Boyle and Brian Fitzpatrick and Camden Mayor Victor G. Carstarphen. In an introduction to those letters, Fox lawyers wrote that the station’s “service should be encouraged, not threatened by baseless license renewal challenges.”

“The commission should signal its support for exemplary local news and public service by promptly dismissing the pending Petition to Deny and granting the Station’s pending license renewal application,” Fox’s statement read.

The opening of proceedings comes after MAD received support for its petition to deny renewal of Fox 29′s license from several high-profile figures, including former FCC chairman Alfred Sikes. Sikes, a Republican, fronted the agency from 1989 to 1993, when Fox chair Rupert Murdoch was creating the Fox Broadcasting Co. network.

During his tenure in the FCC, Sikes wrote in his filing, he “opposed the advocacy of those who, for competitive reasons, tried to block Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to launch Fox Broadcasting Co..” Sikes added that he was a viewer of Fox News “off and on” over the years.

But now, Sikes wrote, Fox is “in the promotion business” and “has hired either true believers or good actors to make sure its airways push the desired narrative.”

One of those narratives, Sikes wrote, was that Fox “chose fiction over nonfiction to make many of its listeners and viewers happy” in its coverage of the 2020 presidential election. As a result, Sikes contends, Fox “knew the facts and decided to ignore them.”

“If the public interest means anything, the FCC must designate for a hearing the application of the Murdoch’s and Fox for renewal of their license to operate Station WTXF, Philadelphia,” Sikes wrote.

MAD has also seen official support from former Fox News contributor William Kristol, former FCC commissioner Ervin Duggan, and Fox Broadcasting Co. founding president Jamie Kellner.