CREW Challenges Fox D.C. Licenses

Opens second front in effort have all News Corp. TV licenses revoked

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/22/2012 12:23:39 PM

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has petitioned the FCC to deny renewal of three Washington-area Fox-owned TV stations. The group had signaled the move last spring in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal in Britain.

The stations are WTTG-TV, WDCA-TV, both Washington, and WUTB Baltimore.

CREW last spring asked the FCC to yank all Fox licenses, alleging that News Corp.'s Rupert and James Murdoch don't have the character qualifications to hold station licenses. The FCC has taken no action to date, the group pointed out, which prompted them to open the second front with the F.C. challenge to the station renewals.

Fox had no comment on the petition.

According to a Fox source, the two D.C. station licenses came up for renewal at the beginning of June, though actually they have been in renewal limbo for eight years thanks to previous unresolved petitions to deny renewal.  Fox expects much of the station-challenge focus to shift to the D.C. stations, the source told B&C back when CREW first signaled it would be going after the D.C. stations.  The group CREDO Action has already asked the FCC to revoke all of Fox's licenses, including the two in D.C.