In a legal opinion from December made public Friday, the Federal Election Commission rejected an allegation that Fox News should be regulated as a political organization — and confirmed that, for the purposes of election law, Fox News is a media company engaged in journalism.
The complaint, filed in part against now-Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and his campaign treasurer Lisa Lisker, alleged that Fox News made an illegal in-kind contribution to the Vance campaign.
The complainant, Vance's GOP primary opponent John Berman, accused Fox News of publishing a statement about the Vance campaign's fundraising totals during the 2022 election cycle that turned out to be inaccurate — and doing so without properly fact-checking it.
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This, the complaint argued, meant that Vance controlled Fox News as effectively his own PAC.
But the law doesn't support that interpretation, the FEC determined.
"The [Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971] and Commission regulations exclude from the definitions of 'contribution' and 'expenditure' the costs incurred in covering or carrying a news story, commentary, or editorial by any broadcasting station, newspaper, web site, magazine, or other periodical publication, including an internet or electronic publication, unless the facility is owned or controlled by any political party, political committee, or candidate," reads the legal opinion, signed by five FEC staff lawyers, including Acting General Counsel Lisa Stevenson. "Costs covered by this so-called press or media exemption are also exempt from the Act’s disclosure and reporting requirements."
Furthermore, irrespective of any political biases it may have, "The record indicates that Fox News is a press entity and is not owned by a political party, political committee, or candidate," and "the Complaint offers no information suggesting that Vance, the Committee, POV, or Ohioans for JD had any role in Fox News’s decision to use that information, or in any other decisions or operations of Fox News, and a candidate does not control a press entity merely because it publishes statements the candidate makes."
Calling Berman's complaint "difficult to follow," Fox News attorneys Caleb P. Burns and Andrew G. Woodson told the FEC that "the complaint fails to allege any facts that support its claim of a violation and, in any event, the complaint’s speculation merely confirms that reporting by Fox News conforms with standard media practices exempt from regulation."
The FEC's six commissioners — three Republicans and three Democrats — affirmed the legal opinion Feb. 10 in a unanimous vote and formally dismissed Berman's complaint, according to additional documents released Friday.
All of this comes as Fox News is facing a $1.6 billion defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems, over the election conspiracy theories the network pushed in 2020 despite internal messages suggesting executives and top personalities at the network knew they were baseless.
On MSNBC last week, host Alex Wagner asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: "Does the White House consider Fox News a news organization?"
Jean-Pierre didn't directly answer the question, as noted by Huffpost, but proceeded to attack Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in particular.
"The president’s going to stand with the police officers, he’s going to stand for truth. And clearly, that is not what Tucker Carlson believes in," Jean-Pierre said, in part.
“So, I’m gonna say that sort of sounds like the White House doesn’t think Fox is a news organization, but we gotta leave it there," Wagner concluded.
