The article doesn't cover it well, but the key arguement seems to be:
> A broadcast licensee's authorization to use broadcast spectrum in the public interest
carries with it the obligation that the station serves its community. The basic duty of broadcast
licensees to serve their communities is reflected in the license renewal provisions of the
Communications Act.13 Section 309(k)(1) of the Act provides that the Commission shall grant a
license renewal application if it finds, with respect to the applying station, that during the
preceding license term, it has served the public interest, convenience, and necessity and that
there have been no serious violations by the licensee of the Communications Act or Commission
rules, or other such violations, which, taken together, would constitute a pattern of abuse.
and
> The court found that none of FOX’s
statements about Dominion were true and held that the statements were defamatory per se.
At first I thought that this was a federal referendum about syndicating Jeopardy! on FOX. Bring back Mayim!!!
In all seriousness, though, does FCC realize it is playing with fire here? If licensing stations begins to hinge on political content vs. partisan "fact check", then that may be a final, 9-inch nail in the coffin of free speech as we knew it. R.I.P.
If government agencies are free to pursue and sanction political opponents, what's the end game on that? What if ICE had taken a real long, hard look at Obama's papers in 2008, and "deported" him to Kenya?
Is this just one more tool in the box of a government of the people, for the people, and by the people?
The FCC's job is to ensure that the open airwaves aren't used for political propaganda. Even without the Fairness Doctrine, there are still limits on how deceptive they can be.
A cable channel like Fox News is pretty much unrestricted, at least until they hit the point of libel. But the airwaves are a scarce resource, and it falls to the FCC to manage it on behalf of the public.
The limits are not well defined, and the FCC believes that they are acting now only because they think those limits have been egregiously surpassed. It will almost certainly end up in court, and the courts will interpret the law to determine what the FCC's real powers are here.
As for the ICE... if they had taken a long, hard look at Obama's papers in 2008 and concluded anything other than that he was an American citizen born in the United States, that would indeed be a problem. The difference here is that Obama was telling the truth, and that Fox News was telling a lie. If we've reached the point where there is no difference between those things, then we've got bigger problems than the FCC.
This isn't about anything political; it's not about Fox News. It's a local FOX affiliate, or at most, a few local FOX affiliates. Has nothing to do with Fox News.
It's kind of Orwellian for the "Media and Democracy Project" to be a group for advicating shutting down television stations who say things they don't like.
I've always found it amazing how advocacy groups like MAD pop into existence and they're already extremely organized, well prepared, and well funded. Is there some cottage industry for spinning up groups like this?
Make some noise online about starting one, see if you someone offers you some money to fund it. (I mean yes, there's very clearly someone propping up these organizations, but I have no idea how to get their attention).
What's Orwellian is people enabling systematic attackers on democracy by reducing the critism to a caricature, creating the most thinnest of veils of freedom of speech.
It would be Orwellian if that's what was going on, but it's clearly not. It's obviously NOT a matter of “not liking” what FOX News says, but that FOX has been proven to be knowingly spreading lies that are actively harmful to this country. That's quite a leap you made there.
Mainstream politics abandoned democratic norms a long time ago. It's pretty easy to look around and find other very prominent examples. We still haven't come to grips with this or its implications, but they're not pretty.
If you believe Fox News is alone in regularly lying, misleading and manipulating their audience... I have a bridge to sell you.
A ruling based on this alone will result in all major traditional media coming under fire. We don't want a reality where the government is in charge of determining "truth".
Some might want to watch it all burn down... but most don't consider what happens when "their team" isn't in power anymore?
The other shoe drops, so to speak, and it would be justifiably ugly. I can almost hear the shrieks now...
Hahahahaha! Oh, they are serious. If FCC does this for Fox then all FCC regulated media is dead. Every news station has lied. Its just that the rest of them were telling the "official" lie and Fox said words that went against the "official" lie.
> A broadcast licensee's authorization to use broadcast spectrum in the public interest carries with it the obligation that the station serves its community. The basic duty of broadcast licensees to serve their communities is reflected in the license renewal provisions of the Communications Act.13 Section 309(k)(1) of the Act provides that the Commission shall grant a license renewal application if it finds, with respect to the applying station, that during the preceding license term, it has served the public interest, convenience, and necessity and that there have been no serious violations by the licensee of the Communications Act or Commission rules, or other such violations, which, taken together, would constitute a pattern of abuse.
and
> The court found that none of FOX’s statements about Dominion were true and held that the statements were defamatory per se.
[1] https://www.mediaanddemocracyproject.org/_files/ugd/f9547d_d...