FACT BRIEF

Could Fox News be forced off the air?

Friday, January 15, 2021

By Christopher Hutton

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Fox News Channel does not use the airwaves, as it transmits primarily via cable television and unlike a broadcast network is not subject to any licensing or regulatory reviews.

Fox and other programmers do depend for distribution on cable-television operators such as AT&T and Comcast, who pay programmers for the right to carry their services. While direct internet distribution is growing as an option, news channels still get most of their audience, influence and revenue via cable distribution.

Unlike major internet platforms, cable distributors have rarely been criticized for offering content perceived to be inflammatory or otherwise controversial. Following the Capitol assault, a report on CNN (which is owned by AT&T) argued that the news channels reporting false claims about 2020 election results could now warrant scrutiny, which provoked a sharp response from a Fox host.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

FCC: Program content rules

CNN Analysis: TV providers should not escape scrutiny for distributing disinformation

Deadline: Fox News host Tucker Carlson claims CNN trying to force his network off the air

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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.