Bill Kristol, the neoconservative commentator who founded The Weekly Standard and spent a decade at Fox News, is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject the broadcast license renewal of a local Philadelphia station owned by Fox Corporation.
The informal objection, which is co-signed by former PBS President Ervin Duggan, follows the formal petition to deny FOX 29 Philadelphia a license that the non-partisan Media and Democracy Project (MAD) filed with the FCC earlier this month. In what it described as a “landmark” bid, MAD cited Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against Fox as proof that the company broadcast “false news about the 2020 election” and, therefore, breached the FCC’s policy on licensee character qualifications.
Now an editor-at-large with the anti-Trump conservative outlet The Bulwark, Kristol said in the objection that while he and Duggan came from different political parties—Duggan served in the Johnson administration—they both believe that open and actual debate is key to American democracy.
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The pair added that they “believe that media companies who are directly or indirectly granted the privilege to serve the public through the operation of FCC-licensed television stations have a corollary duty to facilitate and strengthen democracy by participating in that debate—not by hiding their opinions, nor by providing ‘equal time’ on all issues to outside parties, nor by merely chasing ratings or corporate stock price, but by adhering to the highest journalistic standards in reporting and distributing news to ensure that the public has solid facts upon which to make the decisions that are essential to our society's future as a democracy.”
Kristol, who held senior positions in both the Reagan and Bush administrations, also took Fox’s ownership to task for allowing lies about the 2020 presidential election to be broadcast on their networks.
“The adjudication of the Dominion case unequivocally established that Fox News Channel repeatedly disseminated false news, and the Fox cable channels and its broadcast ones are clearly intimately linked, as Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch hold the authority for decision-making over both,” he said. “The Commission should follow the well-established legal framework and conduct a hearing to fully consider the fitness of FOX and the Murdochs to continue as licensees of the public airwaves.”
Duggan also took aim at the Murdochs over the defamation lawsuit that resulted in a massive $787.5 million settlement to Dominion this past spring.
“As media veterans, we are acutely aware of the power afforded to those who control the information broadcast on our nation's airwaves,” Duggan declared. “Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch's role in perpetuating election falsehoods stands as a blatant violation of the character requirements expected of those the FCC entrusts to hold a broadcast license.”
In its initial petition, MAD said that the “FCC has the duty to hold FOX accountable and send a strong message that intentional, knowing news distortion will not be tolerated on America’s airwaves.” Furthermore, former Fox executive Preston Padden, who had previously floated the idea of the FCC rejecting Fox’s broadcast license, added a supporting declaration to MAD’s filing.
“FOX has undermined our democracy and has radicalized a segment of our population by presenting knowingly false narratives about the legitimacy of the 2020 election,” wrote Padden, who left Fox in 1997. “In my opinion, this type of reporting was a significant contributing factor to the riots in the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
