MAD, Kristol and Duggan Urge FCC to Take Notice of Fox Shareholder Lawsuits

The FCC should take filings from shareholder lawsuits and other court cases against Fox into account in the hearing proceeding on WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see Ref:2307060065]) and require they be entered as evidence, said two filings from the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) and its supporters posted Tuesday in docket 23-293. Documents from four shareholder lawsuits filed against Fox in the Delaware Court of Chancery and sealed filings from the cases brought by voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion “can shed important light on Fox’s behavior immediately after the 2020 presidential election,” said a motion for production of documents from MAD. “By requiring Fox to produce these documents and allowing MAD to review them and supplement its petition, the Commission will have a more complete record,” the filing said. Former FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and Weekly Standard founder William Kristol -- both backers of MAD’s petition to deny -- submitted the complaints from the shareholder lawsuits as evidence, in a separate letter. The lawsuits argue shareholders were damaged by Fox’s amplification of the false stories about the 2020 election because those actions led to a $787 million settlement with Dominion. The complaints “reflect that FOX shareholders are as troubled as we are by the same core issue that should trouble the Commission, and that should lead the Commission to designate a hearing,” said the letter from Kristol and Duggan. Conduct that would compel FCC action if it came from a broadcaster shouldn’t be ignored just because it was undertaken by a “sister cable channel” owned by the same entity, “just as an adulterer’s dalliances cannot be disregarded because they occurred at the paramour’s residence rather than in the marital bed,” said Kristol and Duggan. Fox responded to the MAD filings by citing a letter of support for WTXF from former Undersecretary of the Army Patrick Murphy, also a former Democratic member of Congress. "I have known Fox 29 leadership since my first run for US Congress in 2005 and they have always been fair, balanced, and genuinely give a platform to inspire others to make a positive difference locally and nationally," said the letter. "Fox 29 Philadelphia has done great work in our community, providing balanced coverage of public policy issues, including telling stories of military veterans, who are 42% people of color in my generation of Post 9/11 veterans."