PODCAST: MAD Appears on Digital Politics With Karen Jagoda
An interview with MAD's Brian Hansbury discussing our mission and how we're taking on Fox Corporation and the Murdochs at the FCC.
Last Friday, I was interviewed by Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, for the Digital Politics With Karen Jagoda podcast. Deepak and I spent the bulk of the episode discussing MAD’s effort asking the FCC to hold a hearing to determine if Fox deserves to keep a broadcast license for its Philadelphia station, Fox 29 (WTXF). Our challenge is based on the knowing lies told by the Murdochs and Fox’s senior management in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Those lies, revealed in the Dominion lawsuit, inspired thousands of Americans to descend upon the Capitol for Donald Trump’s January 6th coup attempt. If the FCC’s character qualifications about non-broadcast misconduct mean anything, I told Deepak, the FCC must designate our petition for a hearing.
We also discussed why all Americans must get involved in media reform and what exactly MAD does to bring about change.
On why we should all get involved in media reform: “We believe that everyone should get involved in this because at its core, whatever you care about in this country, if you care about reform in some way, shape, or form you need to care about media reform. Because without media reform, without having more public media and less corporate media, things aren’t likely to change.”
On what MAD does to bring about change: “We get people together to call their representatives in Congress. We’ve created guides that make it easier for people to write [letters to the editor]. We also uplift local journalism…local journalists are truly democracy’s frontline workers…We advocate for public policy solutions…We take on disinformers.”
On our Fox FCC action: “We saw that the FCC was trying to look away. It’s our role as citizens to engage with these levers of government, that are OUR government, and to get involved and push them to do the right thing and to adhere to their own rules and regulations.”
You can listen to the interview here.