Media and Democracy Project Files Mandamus Petition to Compel FCC Action on Fox License Appeal

The Media and Democracy Project filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seeking to compel the Federal Communications Commission to act on the group’s long-pending Application for Review of the Media Bureau’s dismissal of MAD’s Petition to Deny the license renewal of Fox-owned television station WTXF in Philadelphia. The filing marks the three-year anniversary of MAD’s original Petition to Deny. MAD argues that Chairman Brendan Carr has unlawfully refused to bring the matter before the full FCC, preventing the organization from obtaining judicial review, while simultaneously expediting similar proceedings that serve President Trump’s political interests. MAD originally filed its Petition to Deny in July 2023, arguing that Fox Corporation’s broadcast license should be reviewed under the Communications Act’s longstanding character requirements following judicial findings in the Dominion Voting Systems litigation that Fox disseminated false claims about the 2020 presidential election. In her final days, Chair Rosenworcel consolidated MAD’s petition and complaints against ABC, CBS, and NBC into a single docket and ordered the Media Bureau and Enforcement Bureau to dismiss each, yet Chairman Carr has treated “alike” matters very differently. After the FCC’s Media Bureau dismissed the petition, MAD filed an Application for Review by the full Commission in February 2025. Seventeen months later, the Commission has taken no action on the Application for Review.