FOX News’ parent company, News Corporation, is embroiled in a phone hacking scandal that has shone a spotlight on the detestable practices its owner, Rupert Murdoch, promotes as journalism.

The ever-growing scandal has shut down one newspaper, led to multiple arrests and numerous resignations in the UK, and an FBI investigation into allegations that News Corp. staff may have sought to hack the voicemail of victims of 9/11 and their families in the US.

And now a committee in the UK parliament has issued a report blasting both Rupert Murdoch and his son James (also an executive at News Corp.) for their complicity in the scandal, concluding that Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international company.”

It’s time for the FCC to take action. The law requires that the FCC consider the “character” of media owners when deciding whether to grant, deny or revoke a broadcast license.

Tell the FCC: Enforce the law. Revoke the broadcast licenses held by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

We already knew that the hacking activities at the center of the scandal were not limited to a few rogue reporters, but reflect systematic orchestration from the highest levels of News Corp. This new report, however, is the clearest evidence yet that the rot went all the way to the top.

With the law saying that the FCC should consider Murdoch’s “character,” this recent report detailing both his willful blindness that contributed to the phone hacking scandal and his lack of candor in his testimony about his role, ought to enough to call the issue into question.

As Melanie Sloan, the Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) — the nonpartisan watchdog group — aptly put it, “If [Rupert and James Murdoch] are not passing the character standard under British law, it seems to me that they are not going to meet the character standard in America.”

Tell the FCC: Enforce the law. Revoke the broadcast licenses held by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

CREW has already sent a letter to the FCC demanding that the commission revoke News Corp.’s broadcast licenses.

But the commission is likely to flout the law unless significant public pressure can be brought to bear.

We need to speak out.

Remember, Rupert Murdoch may own a massive media empire, but he doesn’t own the airwaves — we do. And the 27 broadcast stations Murdoch owns are only allowed to use the public airwaves because the FCC has made a determination that it is in the “public interest” that they be given licenses to do so.

The deplorable actions Murdoch has condoned in News Corp. go to the very heart of whether or not we can trust his company to act in the public interest.

News Corp. has crossed a line and it’s time for the FCC to take action.

Tell the FCC: Enforce the law. Revoke the broadcast licenses held by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Click the link below to automatically sign the petition:

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6883524

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What do President Obama, Rupert Murdoch and Rush Limbaugh have in common?

They’re all ignoring a massive public outcry against media consolidation by favoring new rules that would allow conglomerates to gobble up more local media across America.

Please click here to help stop media consolidation now — it’ll just take a second.

By signing this letter to the Federal Communications Commission, you’re joining thousands of people who have already told the agency to stop this latest attack on independent media.

I am joining with tens of thousands of Americans to urge you to foster more independent media outlets across the United States. We need your agency to expand media ownership opportunities for women and people of color. Given our nation’s diversity, we need more independent stations to provide communities with diverse programming and a range of viewpoints.

More media mergers translates into less of the news and information people really need. Please abandon any proposal that would leave communities with fewer voices and fewer choices in local media.

And the public response has been overwhelming: So far more than nine out of every 10 comments to the FCC opposes letting broadcasters snatch up even more media outlets.

President Obama was once an outspoken opponent of media consolidation. In 2007, he said that protecting local, independent and diverse media was “critical to the public interest.”

But times have changed. The president has failed to speak up as his FCC has sided with Murdoch and big-media lobbyists in a push for unchecked consolidation.

Last year, Obama also stood on the sidelines while his FCC approved the Comcast-NBC Universal merger — one of the largest and potentially most disastrous media mergers in history.

Now Obama’s FCC is on the verge of weakening the rule that prevents one company from owning both broadcast stations and newspapers in the same market.

Murdoch has long lobbied Washington for this change, which would allow News Corp. to buy up even more local television stations and newspapers in markets from New York City to San Diego. And it would give Clear Channel, Earth’s largest radio conglomerate — and the company that syndicates Rush Limbaugh’s program to more than 600 stations — the power to dominate the dial even more.

Please click here to tell the FCC to side with the people, not Big Media

Nobody — not Rupert Murdoch or other powerful media moguls — should be allowed to monopolize our print and broadcast media and crowd out independent voices. But corporate special interests have prevailed up until this point, dictating ownership rules to the FCC.

And the results are appalling: People of color own just 3 percent of our country’s full-power TV stations and just 7.7 percent of all radio stations. Women own just 6 percent of all broadcast outlets.

By creating real limits to media consolidation, the FCC can pave the way for the kind of independent media that a healthy democracy needs. But the agency needs to hear from you first.

Please click here to urge the FCC to fight the big media barons and oppose further consolidation.

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Act.ly, the web site for “tweet change,” has a petition created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAction) that you can sign to demand that Fox News take responsibility and apologize for supporting James O’Keefe, who was recently arrested by the FBI.

Sign the petition

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A visitor left a comment this morning that included a link to a petition being signed by Glenn Beck supporters. Of course, like so many similar comments, it was off topic and was not approved. I do feel the need to share, so you all can enjoy the contents of the petition letter:

We want to alert you to the fact that Glenn Beck–whose show you used to sponsor on FOX–did not use his platform to “make outlandish accusations about the President and to advance baseless theories that prey on race-based fears.”

He DOES NOT have a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” The claims by such “sources” as the Huffington Post are “ludicrous”.

WE presume your company does not want to lose the millions of consumers that both watch Mr. Beck’s show or listen to him on the radio. We urge you to immediately correct your cowardly action and return your advertising back to the Glenn Beck Program on the FOX News Channel or lose millions more consumers.

First, the beginning paragraph is subjective, at best, and an outright lie, at worst. Glenn Beck certainly does make outlandish accusations about the President, stimulus, other people, and Alaska. He even seems to agree that the U.S. needs to be attacked by terrorists again.

The second paragraph either suggests that Beck was accused of having a “deep-seated hatred for white people…” or that Obama does not. It’s hard to tell from the wording and the fact that a second paragraph was created to make such a statement. I’m not sure who would suggest the former, as the majority likely believe the opposite is true, but the latter would make the first paragraph incorrect.

If the petition author intended to assert that Obama “DOES NOT,” then that is an “outlandish accusation” about the President made by Beck. Additionally, if the latter was the intent, then it is not “ludicrous” to believe that the “sources” are incorrect. (Why put quotes around “sources” anyway? Are they not sources?) There is ample proof that Beck made these statements. How could someone believe he didn’t?

Finally, if you want to get a sponsor to come back it’s probably best not to resort to name calling… If anything, it would probably make them regret their decision to advertise on Fox News even more, or make sure the mistake doesn’t happen again.

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In addition to Lawyers.com (owned by LexisNexis), Procter & Gamble and Progressive Insurance, SC Johnson and GEICO have decided to distance themselves from the fear monger, Glenn Beck.

On Tuesday, August 4, GEICO instructed its ad buying service to redistribute its inventory of rotational spots on FOX-TV to their other network programs, exclusive of the Glenn Beck program,” said a spokesperson for GEICO Corporate Communications in an email to ColorOfChange.org.  “As of August 4, GEICO no longer runs any paid advertising spots during Mr. Beck’s program.

This response is due to a mass emailing effort arranged by ColorOfChange members. 75,000 members have taken part so far. If you wish to be included, click here.

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On July 24, 2007 Democrats.com prompted a boycott of Fox News, calling it “the propaganda arm of the Republican party, willing to twist facts and even lie to promote the Republican agenda.” Their boycott page has been updated to include background information such as Glenn Beck agreeing with guest that wants the U.S. attacked by terrorists again,  Glenn Beck calling President Obama a racist and, most recently, Glenn Beck joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi.

As of August 9, 2009, Democrats.com now includes the following statement:

We join with FoxNewsBoycott and other groups in this boycott. Read the latest update from wikoogle, which includes advertiser phone numbers if you’d like to call: 8/9/09

Thank you for the support! If you would like to sign their petition, click here.

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