Common Cause and Media Matters Hosts #NoFoxFee Rally

Today, Common Cause and Media Matters will deliver a petition with over 145,000 signatures against Fox News’ attempts to pass their financial woes onto customers by renegotiating their carriage fees with cable providers.

The rally will begin at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Comcast Center, 1701 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19103. 

“Fox has amplified election conspiracy theories for years now, and its latest attempt to renegotiate contracts with cable providers shows that they intend to push the financial consequences of their lies onto the general public,” said Raelyn Roberson, media and democracy campaigner at Common Cause. “But our members are tired of footing the bill for Fox, and we won’t let them get away with it.”

“An independent free press is essential to a functioning democracy, but Fox’s promotion of harmful election lies has damaged public faith in our democratic processes,” said Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. “Today we are taking a stand against both the literal and figurative costs of those lies.” 

“Fox News skirts accountability by forcing all cable subscribers to subsidize the networks’ extremism and attacks on democracy, regardless of if they watch Fox News or not. They get away with this by bullying providers into paying exorbitant fees through threatening to unleash the audience they radicalized on to providers,” said Julie Millican, vice president at Media Matters. “We’re here to encourage Comcast to stand up to Fox’s strong-arming rather than to pass an exorbitant fee on to their customers.”

Today’s rally is a part of Common Cause’s Digital Democracy Activists program. More information on Common Cause’s #NoFoxFee campaign is available here.