Former Democratic FCC commissioner and PBS President Ervin Duggan and onetime Weekly Standard editor and Fox News contributor Bill Kristol have teamed up to back a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether Fox has the character qualifications to hold its 29 TV station licenses.

The Media and Democracy Project (MAD), citing Fox’s settlement of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit over election misinformation, earlier this month challenged the renewal of Fox’s WTFX Philadelphia, and by extension the company’s character qualifications for holding any TV station licenses at all.

In an informal letter of support for that formal inquiry, Duggan and Kristol, who are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum, said there were “more than sufficient grounds alleged in the MAD Petition for the Commission to designate the pending WTXF (Fox 29) renewal application for a hearing.”

They said there was evidence that Fox top executives “could have, but didn’t, stop the distribution of clearly false information via Fox News and Fox Business,” and that top Fox exec Rupert Murdoch admitted as much during the lawsuit. “We believe that this failure, which led to consequences dangerous to American democracy that are still unfolding to this day, is so shocking to the conscience, and so inconsistent with both the public interest and good journalistic practice, that there is a clear basis under the FCC’s Character Policy for the Commission to conduct a hearing.”

MAD said in challenging the station's license that Fox's senior management harmed the public by “wilfully distorting election news,” which the group said makes Fox “unqualified to remain a broadcast licensee.”

By its own count, Fox owns 29 full-power TV stations, including in 14 of the top 15 biggest markets, and owns duopolies — two stations — in each of the top three markets in the country, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

MAD wants the FCC to conduct an evidentiary hearing into Fox’s conduct, which would then implicate its ability to hold licenses for any of the stations if the FCC found that Fox Corp. lacked the standing to own WTFX.

“The FCC has the duty to hold Fox accountable and send a strong message that intentional, knowing news distortion will not be tolerated on America’s airwaves,” the group said.

Among the issues the FCC would consider in any review of character qualifications related to news distortion are: the seriousness of the misconduct; the nature of any participation by company managers and owners in the misconduct; any efforts to remedy the wrong; and the company’s past record regarding compliance with FCC rules and policies.

FCC chair Ajit Pai said he has not talked to the White House about his response to the president's tweets about challenging broadcast licenses.

President Donald Trump, unhappy with an NBC News story he branded fake news, had tweeted that someone ought to challenge the company's licenses, which should be revoked "if necessary."

Pai was asked repeatedly about the issue during a press conference following the FCC's October monthly meeting Tuesday (Oct. 24).

Asked if the president or White House had reached out to him on the license challenge issue, Pai said no.

Asked why it took him so long to respond to the president's tweets, Pai said he responded the first time he was asked, when he reiterated that he supports the First Amendment, that the FCC is an independent agency, and that the FCC can't pull a license over the content of a newscast, no matter who asked it to do so.

Pai said his independence as a regulator was clear and suggested that the focus on his response was politically motivated.

"I understand that those who oppose my agenda would like me to be distracted by the controversy of the day," he said.

Pai would not say whether he thought the president's threats had had a chilling effect on the First Amendment, sticking with a regulator's answer that he would apply the facts and the law and make the appropriate decision.

The FCC can actually pull a license over content in specific circumstances, but those don't include what news stories are covered or how they are covered.