"But to be honest, I was very uncomfortable with the "hoax" message several Fox hosts (and POTUS) were pedaling for weeks." POTUS in this case being then-President Donald Trump. "I love Rupert and Lachlan," Padden wrote back declining the request, according to a copy of the email reviewed by NPR. In March 2020, Padden received a note from Viet Dinh, Fox Corp.'s chief legal and policy officer who helps run the company on a day-to-day basis, asking him to write a public opinion piece defending the two Murdochs from criticism over Fox's treatment of COVID-19. The FCC does not regulate the content of cable news.įissures forced their way to the surface at the outset of the pandemic as the isolated men corresponded - Murdoch from his estate in England, Padden from Colorado. The company's legal team also contends that it has no grounds on which to do so, as the statements that caused offense were aired on Fox News. lawyers says the petitioners are wrongly asking the FCC to violate Fox's First Amendment rights by evaluating its coverage. "They have the same ownership, and it's that ownership that lacks the requisite character to be a broadcast licensee." Fox cites fears FCC action would "severely chill speech"įox Corp, Fox News, Fox Television Stations, Fox 29 and Murdoch himself declined comment through various spokespersons. "It doesn't matter that it was Fox News, and not that knowingly lied to the public about the 2020 election results," Sohn adds. Gigi Sohn, who withdrew as a Biden administration nominee to be an FCC commissioner earlier this year, says the facts involving Fox and the Murdochs are so extraordinary that the agency should formally investigate whether to renew the Philadelphia license. "In the end, I decided I had to do something." "I was torn between my admiration and affection for Rupert on the one hand and the damage that, in my opinion, the Fox News Channel was doing to America," Padden says. Torn between the admiration he felt for Murdoch and the damage he perceived wrought by Foxįor Padden, it represented a sharp break with a man whom he considered, as he put it in an email to Murdoch himself, "a surrogate father/older brother/uncle." Padden has joined a small band of highly vocal critics objecting to Fox's effort to seek renewal for its station in Philadelphia, called Fox 29. Now, a generation later, Padden is once more now front and center at a fight in Washington involving the FCC - this time on the other side from Murdoch and his powerful corporation. He later left to become president of ABC Television. There was no question in my mind that what we were doing was good for America, good for viewers, good for advertisers, good for television stations, good for democracy."Īn Associated Press photograph from the time shows him conferring with Murdoch in Washington, D.C., at a crucial Federal Communications Commission meeting in 1995. "At the time, the company motto was 'Fortune favors the brave'," Padden says now. Padden worked for Murdoch as a senior executive for six years in the 1990s. Fox introduced the world to The Simpsons, COPS, House, computerized first down lines on NFL broadcasts and more. Its ultimate success echoes Murdoch's triumphs around the globe, including in Australia, the U.K., Europe, Latin America and Asia. Preston Padden joined the Fox broadcast network a few years after its launch and helped founder Rupert Murdoch make it viable. A generation later, Padden says Murdoch is unfit to hold the licenses for local television stations due to Fox News. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch, right, huddles with Preston Padden, president of network distribution for Fox, during a hearing of the Federal Communications Commission in May 1995.
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