I don't remember where the question was originally posed but I promised to post an answer as I was going to have lunch with Elliot's advisor, the head of the poly sci dept at linfield. well, I can do even better as I also ran into another member of the faculty who wrote his dissertation on the rise of fox.
the answer is simply that there is no certification required! one simply makes the claim. apparently fox does have a program that is more or less real reporting.