The Media and Democracy Project has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to order the FCC to take a full-commission vote on the group’s challenge to the license renewal of Fox Television Stations’ WTXF (Fox 29) in Philadelphia.
The advocacy group wants the court to compel the agency either to grant or dismiss its pending Application for Review.
Without a final commission decision, MAD says, it cannot seek judicial review of staff-level action that rejected its petition. MAD filed a Petition to Deny WTXF’s renewal in July 2023. It argued that findings from Fox’s Dominion Voting Systems litigation showed the company aired false claims about the 2020 election and therefore failed the Communications Act’s character standards for broadcast licensees.
The group accuses Chairman Brendan Carr of leaving the Fox matter stalled while the commission moved faster on similar complaints involving ABC, CBS, and NBC stations. Former Fox executive Preston Padden, who supports MAD, has called that pattern an effort to keep the case from the courts.
Fox has said the Philadelphia station is being used as leverage over speech that did not air on WTXF and that the bureau correctly applied FCC precedent. Former FCC Chairman Al Sikes and former Commissioner Ervin Duggan filed an amicus brief backing MAD, arguing the commission is resolving major issues at the staff level and thereby avoiding reviewable final orders. Writs of mandamus are rarely granted. The D.C. Circuit recently rejected a similar bid in another FCC media case. The court has not yet ruled on MAD’s request.