The Republican Presidential Debate was held yesterday, and Fox News had no interest in letting cord cutters watch it.
Fox News was extremely aggressive in taking down illegal streams and making it difficult to view the legal streams. If you did not have a cable subscription you were unable to watch the video feed, and the 5 PM Eastern debate audio feed was ruined by democrat talk host Allen Comles’s talking over the debate feed.
Fox News even went so far as to block legal official streams like Sky News’ feed of the debate in the U.K. (Note Sky News is owned by the same parent company as Fox News.) Yes, Sky News, which always streams their 24/7 news live and free on their site and through apps like their Roku Channel was forced off the air with a copyright claim from Fox News. So, yes, Rupert Murdock, who owns both Fox News and Sky News, essentially put a copyright claim against himself to stop the live legal stream of the debate.
This is in line with Fox’s current practice of not offering anything free online, which for football and their shows can be understood to a point. Yet this was a presidential debate something that would affect all United States citizens as well as people around the world. Presidential debates should be available to all tax payers without the need to sign a two-year contract with a service provider.
Please sign our petition to demand that a feed of all presidential debates be made available to all United States citizens without the need for a two-year contract.