MAD: FCC Should Reverse Dismissal of Petition to Deny Against WTXF

The full FCC should overturn the Media Bureau’s dismissal of the Media and Democracy Project’s petition to deny against Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia, MAD said in a response filing in docket 25-11 Monday. Fox argued earlier this month that the FCC should affirm the Media Bureau order, which came under previous FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Current Chairman Brendan Carr reinstated petitions against NBC, ABC, and CBS that Rosenworcel had dismissed but didn't resurrect MAD's Fox petition. MAD conceded in a news release Monday that “it's unlikely" Carr "will move quickly to review MAD's appeal.” Fox said MAD “has sought to treat Fox 29 Philadelphia as collateral in its efforts to punish Fox 29 Philadelphia’s corporate parent for speech disfavored by MAD that never even aired on the broadcast station.” The bureau order dismissing MAD’s petition “properly applied the Communications Act and FCC precedent,” Fox added. It continued that MAD hasn’t identified Fox conduct that is relevant to the FCC character standards.

MAD said Monday that it never claimed Fox’s conduct fit neatly into those categories. In settling litigation with voting company Dominion, Fox “acknowledged that it made false statements concerning the outcome of the election,” MAD said. “It is the consequences of those false statements, and what the fact that they were made in the pursuit of ratings and profit indicates about the character of the individuals who control [Fox Television Stations], that the Bureau failed to examine,” MAD said. Fox said FCC rules prevent the agency from using the findings in that case against it because they weren’t part of a final adjudication and “did not involve an adjudication of a civil violation of law in which a specific finding of fraudulent representation to another governmental unit was made." To ignore MAD’s appeal, the FCC would have to conclude that Fox “knowingly lying to its audience to preserve ratings and profits, to the benefit of people actively seeking to overturn the results of a presidential election, whose actions incited a riot” don’t fall within the scope of the FCC’s character policy, MAD said. An FCC decision against the application for review “would not withstand the scrutiny of court review,” MAD said.