How Our Efforts to Bring Competition To Television Unknowingly Helped Create the Fox Disinformation Machine

For what little it may, or may not, be worth at this point, Preston Padden, Ken Solomon and Bill Reyner wish to express their deep disappointment for helping to give birth to Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Television that came to include Fox News Channel — the channel that prominently includes news that, in the words of Sidney Powell’s counsel, “no reasonable person would believe.”

How many people can recall, even fathom today, that we were brought up in an entertainment world that offered only three choice of video programming — programming that ABC, CBS and NBC chose and that you could only watch when the networks offered it?

In the 1990’s Bill was lead outside Counsel for NewsCorp/Fox/Rupert Murdoch (“Fox”) and Preston was their lead Washington Lobbyist.  Ken was Executive VP of Network Distribution for Fox Broadcasting Company.  There was no Fox News Channel on the horizon at the time, and none of us ever worked for that Channel. 

With the help of others, Bill and Preston tenaciously defended Fox from attacks alleging Fox’s failure to comply with the foreign ownership restrictions of the Communications Act of 1934, and we obtained for Fox waivers of the FCC’s rules including the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule (“FISR”) and the Broadcast/Newspaper Cross-Ownership Rule.  Eventually, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit confirmed the elimination of the FISR Rule. All of these waivers were critical in enabling Fox to become the long-sought fourth broadcast television network. Out of the ashes of antiquated rules, we were able to help Fox acquire more mass with the acquisition of essential large market VHF television stations and important rights to broadcast NFL games throughout the country.

Ken was instrumental in strengthening the lineup of local broadcast stations affiliated with the new Fox Network.  He prepared powerful presentations that persuaded established affiliates of ABC, CBS and NBC to switch to Fox. His efforts were critical to enabling the viability of Fox.

At the time of our work in the 1990’s, we all greatly admired Rupert Murdoch and his vision and bold efforts. We genuinely believed that the creation of a fourth competitive force in broadcast television was in the public interest.  Many others thought so also as our waiver requests and other actions on behalf of Fox garnered the support of Democrat and Republican FCC Commissioners and diverse political leaders such as New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Senator Ted Kennedy. Indeed, the development of Fox Broadcasting Company broke the hold that the Big 3 Networks had on US households and opened the gates to unlimited competition for many new sources of programming.

We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become.  In a 120 page Court Order, backed by extensive record evidence including voluminous emails from inside Fox, the Judge in the Dominion case found that Fox repeatedly presented false news.  Fox did not appeal the decision but instead acknowledged it and paid nearly $800 million in damages to Dominion.

In our opinion, the Fox News Channel has had many negative impacts on our society.  Arguably the worst has been Fox’s role in promoting Trump’s “Big Lie” about alleged widespread fraud in the 2020 election and, in our opinion, Fox’s role in contributing to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that undermined our democracy.  In fact, the connection between Fox and the January 6 attack is so strong that multiple Jan 6 defendants have pleaded not guilty arguing they were suffering from “Foxitis” — a disease caused by watching false news on Fox!

Through months long email exchanges in 2020 and 2021, Preston gained first-hand knowledge of Rupert Murdoch’s thinking about former President Trump and alleged fraud in the 2020 election.  Murdoch made it very clear to Preston that he understood that the 2020 election had not been stolen.  Nonetheless, during the same time period, Fox continued to perpetuate the “Big Lie” and promote the Jan 6 “Stop the Steal” rally in D.C.  

Many other veterans of the historic effort in the 1990’s to break the strangle hold of the Big 3 Networks and to build a fourth competitive force in American television share our resentment that the reputation of the Fox brand we helped to build has been ruined by false news.