First, it was the so-called “Media and Democracy Project” and former ABC Television Network and FOX executive Preston Padden pitching the FCC to deny the license renewal of a broadcast TV station serving the Philadelphia market.
MAD’s petition was then boosted by a bipartisan joint informal objection filed by former PBS President Ervin S. Duggan and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol.
Now, the Chairman of the FCC under President George H.W. Bush is joining them in supporting MAD’s petition to strip FOX Television Stations of its ability to keep a license for WTXF-29.
Alfred Sikes, who served as FCC Chairman from August 1989 through the end of Bush’s lone term in office, is supporting MAD’s petition to deny the broadcast license renewal application for the station.
For those hoping the MAD request gains steam at the Commission, the filing from Sikes is noteworthy — in particular because of his ties to successive Republican administrations. Prior to his nomination as FCC Chairman by the elder President Bush, he served under President Reagan as Director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
As Sikes sees it, “The FCC has allowed the public interest responsibility of broadcast licensees to become a bureaucratic construct. The behavior of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, highlighted in the MAD petition, raises a first principles question. Is truthful conduct a part of the standard?”
The comments echo those from MAD that focus mainly on FOX News and its coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election; the FCC has not ruled on a license renewal proceeding based on a station’s content, and instead has focused on regulatory policy. Furthermore, Sikes’s comments do not point specifically to WTXF, or to why this station’s license is being singled out. Yet the comments from Sikes are particularly intriguing, as he supported providing Rupert Murdoch with FCC waivers necessary to launch Fox Broadcasting Company.
In Sikes’ view, “The FCC has allowed the pledge to operate in the public interest to become perfunctory at best. If the public interest means anything, the FCC must designate for a hearing the application of the Murdochs and FOX for renewal of their license to operate station WTXF.”
The term “public interest” is one of particular focus of Sikes’ petition. He recalled the 1977 filing of an application with the Commission seeking approval of his purchase of KLGT-FM in Breckenridge, Colo. “The application for the transfer of ownership required me to operate the station in the ‘public interest’— that was the law,” he said. “I promised.”
Twelve years later, when he was sworn in as FCC Commissioner, Sikes recalls that he was “still wondering whether operating in the ‘public interest’ was just some bureaucratic
construct or a legally enforceable requirement. The truth is, the answer is still elusive.”
In the case of FOX and WTXF, the First Amendment is no defense to Sikes’ conclusion that “Fox lied repeatedly.”
He concludes, “The FCC has allowed the pledge to operate in the public interest to become
perfunctory at best. 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. That application should be closely scrutinized in public hearings and court rooms.”
FOX legal counsel Matthew DelNero and John Cobb of Covington & Burling LLP‘s Washington, D.C., office, could not disagree more. Earlier this month, the TV station owner urged the Commission to dismiss the Petition to Deny filed by “MAD” and grant the license renewal for WTXF without delay. In particular, the attorneys state, “Granting MAD’s request to order an evidentiary hearing into Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal application would upend decades of established Commission precedent, put the Commission in a position fundamentally incompatible with the First Amendment, and threaten to deprive viewers in Philadelphia of a station that serves its community exceptionally well.”
To view Sikes’ FCC communication in full, please click here.
