Cruz Blasts FCC Over WTXF Renewal; Fox Meets With MB

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mentioned the license renewal proceeding for Fox Television Stations-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia in a floor speech before the confirmation vote for FCC nominee Anna Gomez Thursday. The FCC “is now entertaining requests by radical left-wing groups to revoke a broadcast station’s license for alleged ‘misinformation’ and turning a routine FCC license renewal proceeding into a truth commission,” said Cruz. The petition to deny 's supporters are “bipartisan including Bill Kristol, former editor of Murdoch’s conservative Weekly Standard magazine, Al Sikes, former Republican Chairman of the FCC and me -- longtime Republican enabler of Fox!,” said former Fox executive and longtime lobbyist Preston Padden in an email. “No one except Senator Cruz is talking about a ‘truth Commission’.” "The Senator's characterization of this effort couldn't be further from the truth," said petitioner the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) in an emailed statement. "The issue here concerns a massive media corporation that, with management's full knowledge and approval, is documented to have lied to millions of Americans." None of the allegations made by MAD against owner Fox Television Stations and its parent company, Fox, should lead to the station’s license being designated for hearing, said Fox in an ex parte meeting Tuesday with FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, said an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 23-293. The Communications Act and FCC rules “compel dismissal of MAD’s petition and related filings, and grant of renewal of Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license,” said the filing. FCC rules list a narrow range of categories of non-FCC related conduct that are relevant to considerations of a licensee's character, Fox said. Those include criminal convictions, mass-media antitrust violations, and crimes involving false statements to other government entities. The rules allow for consideration of “non-adjudicated misconduct” but require it to be “so egregious as to shock the conscience and evoke almost ‘universal’ disapprobation,” Fox said. Fox has the “requisite character qualifications and no allegations have been plead concerning potentially ‘relevant’ conduct," the filing said. The MAD petition should also be rejected because it was filed untimely, seeks to apply FCC broadcast rules to cable news, and would amount to changes in the FCC’s character policy without notice or comment, the filing said.