Yes please. Go after OAN and RT too, these are all intelligent propaganda machines that need to be stopped. It’s really hard to believe we just let it go.
OAN and RT are not on FCC airwaves. They are on cable TV and internet. These lawsuits are for Fox affiliates that use licensed FCC tv frequencies.
Edit: I just found out that that’s not true for political broadcasts. https://www.fcc.gov/media/policy/statutes-and-rules-candidate-appearances-advertising
(a) The Commission may revoke any station license or construction permit –
(7) for willful or repeated failure to allow reasonable access to or to permit purchase of reasonable amounts of time for the use of a broadcasting station, other than a non-commercial educational broadcast station, by a legally qualified candidate for Federal elective office on behalf of his candidacy.
Huh, weird rules and what does “bona-fide” mean in this instance?:
Q: Does the FCC regulate the content of cable programming?
A: Cable television system operators generally make their own selection of channels and programs to be distributed to subscribers in response to consumer demands. The Commission does, however, have rules in some areas that are applicable to programming – called “origination cablecasting” in the rules – that are subject to the editorial control of the cable system operator. The rules generally do not apply to the content of broadcast channels or to access channels over which the cable system operator has no editorial control.
Q: What is the “equal opportunities” rule of political cablecasting?
A: Once a cable system allows a legally qualified candidate to use its facilities (by identifiable voice or picture), it must give “equal opportunities” to all other legally qualified candidates for that office to use its facilities. The cable system can not censor the content of the candidate’s material in any way, and can not discriminate between candidates in practices, regulations, facilities or services rendered pursuant to the equal opportunities rules.
Candidates must submit requests for equal opportunities to the cable system within one week after a rival candidate’s first use of the cable system. If the person was not a legally qualified candidate at the time of the rival’s first use, he or she may submit a request within one week of the rival’s next use of the cable system after he or she becomes a legally qualified candidate.
Q: Does a legally qualified candidate’s appearance on a newscast trigger the equal opportunities rule?
A: No. Candidate appearances that are exempt from the rules include appearances on a bona fide newscast, bona fide news interview, bona fide news documentary, or on-the-spot coverage of a bona fide news event.
My guess is that there is no set standard in law. When you deny someone else “equal opportunity “ they can challenge the denial to the FCC and in court. Whoever loses the FCC appeal files a federal lawsuit. Then it would be based on case law for the definition of bona fide in similar cases and, barring that, similar usage of the term. You duke it out with $1000/hr lawyers in federal court for 2-3 rounds until the most recent loser appeals to the Supreme Court where they turn youdown or you argue if the FCC even has the power to compel such an “equal opportunity “ based on the law which allows the rule to be written.
At least that’s my layman’s understanding of the process.
But I thought Fox News sold off its channels to Disney.
I don’t think that included the “news” portions of their machine. https://uproxx.com/movies/disney-fox-merger-official-press-release/
It’s important to note what isn’t included in the deal. Fox will spin out some assets into a new company. These assets include Fox News, Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, and the Big Ten Network. This new company also retains ownership of the 50-plus acre studio lot in Los Angeles. Deadline reports, “Insiders expect the remaining Fox assets to eventually merge with News Corp., whose holdings include the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and the Times of London. Though that combination won’t occur immediately.”
Note to self: Keep ignoring the Wall Street Journal.
Democrats don’t have the guts.
Not sure why you got down voted, but I don’t think it’s a matter of guts either.
Democrats suffer from the same thing that has plagued them for the last couple decades: Individualism and the inability to coelesce. The GOP has their party hyjacked by morons, but look at how they are still able to fall behind the morons for the most part. This is why Democrats always seem weak. It’s not a lack of courage or good ideas, it’s just that everyone has their own opinion on how best to do things and they can never truly fall in line. “Herding cats” is most apt here.
Is it necessarily better to have everyone together for the wrong reasons? Nah, I’m just pointing out reality.
Another consideration is that while being in Congress is still a great way to become a multimillionaire, nothing will really change. Neither party wants to rock the boat while things are so lucrative. It’s all talk.
I agree with you 100% about how Republicans fall in-line like good little soldiers, but the fact remains that Democrats are almost never willing to go on the offensive. They will always react to whatever narrative Republicans are trying to push. And they’ve been like that for decades. That’s why even when Republicans are not in power, they are able to control the subjects under discussion. It is infuriating. Democrats are always too willing to make concessions. Too tilling to give in. Too willing to make peace. Republicans are bullies and they know they can get their way if they make a big enough stink about things. Republicans are always quickto attack, quick to go on the offensive.
Look at the whole illegal immigrants situation. Republicans have shipped peopleto MA, DC,CA and probably a bunch of other places and each time Democrats have the same timid response. They denounce the actions and the hope it goes away and doesn’t happen again. But it does happen again and again and again because Democrats aren’t willing to actually go after the people organizing and carrying out these plans. Charge them with human trafficking. Make it very costly for anyone to help Republicans carry out these plans because they would he met with federal charges. Yet they don’t. They’re a bunch of pussies. They talk the big game and then nothing happens.
Time and time again stuff like this happens and then they never follow through because they don’t have the balls to do it. Remember how right after Biden won but he wasn’t sworn into office yet,there were all these murmurs about expanding the Supreme Court to include more justices to dilute the voting power of Yhomas and the other right wing justices. There was all this planning and justifying that it would be legal. Democrats even controlled both sides of Congress. Then Biden was sworn in and that plan was never spoken of again.
It’s almost like this is an important distinction between the two parties…
Not really the issue at play here. If it isn’t granted it’s hard to see how they wouldn’t win on first amendment grounds. Not granting the license would have to be over something other than “you lied to everyone.”
You’re missing the point.
The point isn’t to actually do it. Even though that should be what we do because up until the late 80s or early 90s, news stations were required by law to show both sides of a story and be reasonably unbiased.
The point is to turn into a huge deal and bring the media focus on their horribly biased. If Democrats could merge forces and start hearings and make speeches about the bias of their coverage, other media outlets would start to cover the fake stories and outright lies that they run. No one is expecting to change hard-core Fox watcher’s minds, the point is to show just how biased they are and cement them as a propaganda media outlet for everyone else. Block them from the White House press pool. Expose them for repeating Russian talking points.
You, me and most of the people here know this. We discuss this stuff all the time. But we aren’t your average American. Your average American gets maybe 5 minutes of news every day (if that). They might hear that Fox is the conservative network,but they might not realize just how bad they lie and just how much bias there really is.
Look at the huge, massive, insane big of a deal that Republicans created over Behngazi or over Hillarys emails. These were far, far lesser deals than the propaganda that Fox has been feeding Americans for decades now, and yet Democrats are too spineless to ever really attack Fox head-on.
