Fox Cites First Amendment In Urging FCC To Renew Broadcast License In Face Of Challenge Over Coverage Of Donald Trump’s False Election Claims

deadline.com:

Fox says that the First Amendment limits the FCC from considering whether its news coverage of Donald Trump’s false election claims should play a role in the license renewal of its Philadelphia station.

In a filing this week, Fox Television Station attorneys argued against a petition brought by the Media and Democracy Project, a challenge led in part by former Fox executive Preston Padden.

The public interest group is seeking an evidentiary hearing on the license renewal of WTXF-TV, or Fox 29 on the basis of that the company “lacks the character to remain a licensee.” The Fox attorneys wrote that such a hearing “for the first time in history, have the Commission adjudicate a broadcast license renewal on the basis of cable network content, in violation of the First Amendment and the authority delegated to the Commission by Congress.” Despite the revelations from the Dominion defamation case, the Fox attorneys wrote that the litigation has “no bearing” on the license renewal.

Read their response here. They also wrote that “as explained by Chairwoman [Jessica] Rosenworcel a few years ago, the government making editorial decisions about content in the course of a broadcast license renewal proceeding ‘would be an affront to our First Amendment tradition.'” Rosenworcel was appointed FCC chair by President Joe Biden.