Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary on the Murdoch media empire and Trump

According to the Guardian ("Murdoch empire strikes back at ABC’s documentary on Fox News’ championing of Trump"), the Murdoch media empire is furiously challenging the ABC documentary on the links between Murdoch and former President Trump ("Murdoch’s Fox News issues ABC with legal threat over ‘Four Corners’ Trump episode," Sydney Morning Herald).  

Certainly, we are familiar with the decline of Fox "News" and the Fox Business Channel into "Trumpmania" and conspiracy mongering.

Surprisingly, the documentary, on the ABC show "Four Corners" is available online to people outside of Australia, which is often rare, because of restrictions on broadcasting rights in other countries.  I definitely will watch it.

-- "Fox and the Big Lie: How the network promoted Donald Trump’s propaganda and helped destabilise democracy in America" (video)

In the UK, because of News Corporation newspapers hacking of personal telephones for "scoops", the company was deemed unfit to pursue full ownership of British Sky Broadcasting ("News Corp pulls out of BSkyB bid," Guardian).  Eventually, they sold their interest to the US-based Comcast Corporation.

I am not a lawyer, and am not really an advocate anymore (more a writer), but I argue on similar grounds, Fox television's terrestrial broadcast licenses ought to be able to be challenged, based on their poor stewardship of the cable television news assets and their failure to be "fair and balanced".

-- "60% of Fox News facts are really lies," Politifact, 2015
-- "Dominion Voting Systems Files $1.6 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News," NPR
-- "A Rigorous Scientific Look Into The 'Fox News Effect'," Quora
-- "Misinformation During A Pandemic," University of Chicago

In the 1960s-1990s, the conglomerate RKO owned television and radio stations.  The corporation was found guilty of illegal activity in another subsidiary, and advocates used that conviction to successfully make the case that RKO was unfit to operate the over the air television station, and its use of the public's airwaves, in Boston.  Over time, they lost more licenses on similar grounds ("RKO General Is stripped of 3 TV Licenses," Washington Post, 1980, and then all of them for a different transgression.

This is the precedent that I think should be used to begin challenging Fox's tv station licenses, which are the root of the company's wealth and power in the United States.

Fox owns 18 stations directly, branded as Fox Television, 10 stations which broadcast "My Network Television" and one independent station.

These stations are in:

• Atlanta
• Austin, Texas
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Detroit
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Milwaukee
• Minneapolis
• New York City
• Ocala
• Orlando
• Philadephia
• Phoenix
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Tampa
• Washington, DC

The stations in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington are the crown jewels of the network.

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Murdoch's purchase of Metromedia Broadcasting and its stations in key markets, paying billions for NFL television rights, and using both assets to create the Fox television network and brand was brilliant.