A nonprofit group called the Media and Democracy Project has urged the Federal Communications Commission to deny Fox’s renewal of its license to operate one of its largest stations. Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press

Rupert Murdoch never had a more loyal ally in Washington than Preston Padden.

When Murdoch was building his Fox broadcast network in the early 1990s, Padden served as both his chief lobbyist and the organizer of Fox’s affiliated stations. As an executive, Padden helped secure the regulatory waivers that enabled Fox to grow into a full-fledged competitor to ABC, CBS, and NBC. He was also instrumental in saving the network itself, by beating back an effort by Democrats to strip Murdoch of control of Fox’s largest stations.

Those victories helped build Fox and set the stage for Murdoch’s next start-up: the Fox News Channel.

Long after he left Fox in 1997, Padden and Murdoch remained friends and regularly exchanged emails.

“I’ve always admired Rupert’s vision and guts,” Padden said in an interview, describing the 92-year-old mogul as “a father figure.”

So Padden’s latest project comes freighted with irony: He hopes to persuade federal regulators to pull Fox Corp.’s licenses to operate its TV stations – the very ones he helped Murdoch maintain nearly 30 years ago.

Last month Padden, now 74 and retired, joined with a nonprofit group called the Media and Democracy Project (MAP) to urge the Federal Communications Commission to deny Fox’s renewal of its license to operate one of its largest stations, WTXF in Philadelphia, known as Fox29. Padden and MAP argue that Fox lacks the “character” required by the FCC to be a license holder, because of post-election misinformation spread by another company entity: Fox News.

“Fox has undermined our democracy and has radicalized a segment of our population by presenting knowingly false narratives about the legitimacy of the 2020 election,” Padden wrote in a statement supporting MAP’s petition, which accuses Fox of “intentional, knowing news distortion.”

Padden has also gone public, writing anti-Fox commentaries for the Daily Beast, a publication owned by a company founded and run by Barry Diller, the co-founder of the Fox broadcast network. “Is It Time for the FCC to Take a Close Look at Rupert Murdoch’s Licenses?” asked the headline on one of Padden’s columns in June.

Rupert Murdoch built his Fox broadcast network in the early 1990s. Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Fox Corp., in its official response filed with the FCC last month, called MAP’s petition “frivolous” and “completely without merit.” It said MAP’s petition “asks the FCC to upend the First Amendment and long-standing FCC precedent” by tying the station’s license to the behavior of a cable network. A company spokesman declined to comment further to The Washington Post about the petition and Padden.

Padden has no particular beef with WXTF itself; it was merely the first Fox station to come up for renewal since Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems in April. Padden thinks the cable network’s conduct following the 2020 election was so egregious that the government should, at minimum, hold public hearings on Fox29’s renewal and consider sanctions against its parent company.

Fox News amplified Trump’s claims by repeatedly and baselessly suggesting that Dominion, a voting-machine company, conspired to thwart Trump’s reelection. The statements prompted Dominion to sue Fox for defamation. Fox paid Dominion $787.5 million to settle the lawsuit, just days after the judge in the case ruled that it was “crystal clear” that on-air statements by Fox’s hosts about Dominion were false.

Padden himself had a cameo role in the Dominion lawsuit. One of his email exchanges with Murdoch – which was included in documents released by Dominion before trial – indicated that Murdoch was aware that Fox was broadcasting lies about the election but that he did little to intervene.

On Jan. 5, 2021, for example, Padden urged Murdoch to direct Fox’s most popular hosts – Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham – to tell viewers that Trump had lost the election. According to the trial documents, Murdoch discussed the idea with Fox News’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott. But Scott responded that Fox had to be careful about reporting such facts, to avoid “pissing off” its viewers. No such on-air statements were ever issued. The next day, Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of electoral votes.

Padden, who grew up in Washington, is a lifelong Republican who spent most of his career employed by big media companies, including Murdoch’s. He put himself through college and law school by working as a switchboard operator at Washington’s WTTG-TV, then owned by billionaire John Kluge’s Metromedia Corp. Kluge later sold the station and six others to Murdoch, who formed Fox.

Padden headed a trade association of independent TV stations when Murdoch plucked him to head Fox’s Washington office. He later directed the Walt Disney Co.’s lobbying efforts and then retired in 2011 to Boulder, Colo., so that he and his wife could be near their children and grandchildren.

Padden said he bears no animus toward Murdoch, but he says Fox has done “grievous harm” to the country and should be held accountable.

“Never in the history of the FCC have they been confronted with an applicant who was found to have repeatedly presented false news by a judge,” Padden said. “If [the FCC’s] character standard means anything, it means you can’t be guilty of presenting false news.”

There is a personal element to Padden’s advocacy. A close family member and a longtime family friend, he said, have succumbed to “Fox-itis,” which is critics’ shorthand for a distorted worldview allegedly fed by the network’s misrepresentations. Padden declined to identify the individuals.

In addition to supporting MAP, a nonprofit organization that claims 4,000 members, Padden’s allies include political commentator Bill Kristol and Ervin S. Duggan, a former FCC commissioner and president of PBS. Kristol and Duggan have also filed statements in support of an FCC proceeding against Fox.

Kristol, in an interview, said Fox should pay “a civic price” for its post-election behavior by facing a public hearing. After the Dominion revelations, Kristol said, “the FCC can’t act as if nothing happened.” (Kristol has his ties to Murdoch’s world: He was formerly employed by Fox News as an analyst, and a commentary magazine he founded, the Weekly Standard, was funded by Murdoch).

It’s rare, however, for the FCC to require a hearing for a licensee, let alone to rescind a license, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a veteran communications lawyer. It is rarer still, he said, for the FCC to yank a license based on “character” issues.

“The short answer is it almost never happens,” Schwartzman said. “It’s a torturous process.” Schwartzman filed a petition against one of Fox’s TV station licenses in New York in 2007, alleging that it had failed to live up to a commitment to provide programming to viewers in northern New Jersey. Fox ultimately prevailed – after 10 years of regulatory filings and court appeals.

As an old Washington hand, Padden knows the politics aren’t in his favor. Republicans control the House, and therefore have a grip on the FCC’s budget, giving leverage to Fox’s allies. And Murdoch and Fox News have a powerful public defender: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee. Cruz tweeted last month that it’s “unconstitutional, un-American, and quite simply, mad” for the FCC to hold hearings on Fox29’s license because Fox News allegedly aired “election misinformation.”

In the meantime, Padden wonders about his long friendship with Murdoch. During the height of the pandemic, they were frequent correspondents, exchanging bantering emails. Murdoch at one point urged his former lieutenant to wear a mask and get vaccinated, Padden said. He also sent Padden a case of wine from his vineyard in southern California.

But that was then. Since his public opposition to Fox began, Padden says he hasn’t heard from his former boss.