Left–Right Coalition Files Petition to Strike 'News Distortion' Rule
Advocates said the policy created risks for newsroom independence and speech.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2025— A cross-ideological coalition of former Federal Communications Commission leaders, public interest advocates, and free market groups filed at petition Thursday urging the agency to repeal its “News Distortion policy, arguing the rule is unconstitutional, vague, and unnecessary.
The official "petitioners" on the brief were seven former FCC chairs and commissioners, plus four former top agency aides: Andrew Barrett, Rachelle Chong, Ervin Duggan, Mark Fowler, Dennis Patrick, Alfred Sikes, Thomas Wheeler, Christopher Wright, Kathryn Brown, Jerald Fritz and Peter Pitsch.
The coalition wrote that the policy “casts an omnipresent shadow” over editorial decisions despite being enforced only eight times in sixty years, almost exclusively for intentional hoaxes.
Member discussion