A court this week ordered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to respond to a petition filed by the Media and Democracy (MAD) Project over a long-pending challenge to the broadcast license of a Fox-owned TV station.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued its order in response to a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by MAD Project earlier this year, which is seeking to revive its effort to challenge and cancel the broadcast license of WTXF (Channel 29) in Philadelphia.
The court said the FCC must respond to the MAD Project’s request for relief in writing within the next 30 days.
The original petition filed three years ago centered on whether Fox Corporation, the parent of WTXF, could pass the FCC’s character fitness test for a broadcast license. The MAD Project has long attempted to connect the station to a $787 million settlement agreed to by Fox in order to end litigation with Dominion Voting Systems over the airing of political conspiracy theories on Fox News shortly after the 2020 election.
Fox Corporation was not required to admit wrongdoing in the case. Fox News Media operates two cable news channels and is involved in other forms of media, including book publishing and podcasts, but it is run as a separate business unit from Fox Television Stations, which includes WTXF.
Nonetheless, MAD Project has long contended that WTXF was affected by the settlement with Fox News Media because it shares common ownership. Last year, just before President Donald Trump took office, the FCC’s Media Bureau under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed the MAD Project’s petition, with Rosenworcel describing the challenge as politically-motivated. That same day, the Media Bureau rejected petitions against other broadcast channels that were filed by conservative activist groups.
While Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has unilaterally revived some of those challenges, he has declined to reconsider the matter involving WTXF’s license. Shortly after Carr became chairman, attorneys for the MAD Project asked the FCC to take a second look at their request, ultimately appealing for a full review by Carr and the agency’s two other commissioners.
Carr has declined to do so, prompting the MAD Project to bring the matter to the Court of Appeals last month. MAD has contrasted the handling of its Fox challenge with the FCC’s treatment of complaints involving ABC, CBS and NBC, which it says Carr has revived or expedited since becoming Chairman.
“We welcome the Court’s order requiring the FCC to respond to our mandamus petition,” Preston Padden, a former Fox Broadcasting executive associated with the MAD Project, said in a statement e-mailed to The Desk.
Padden continued: “Chairman Carr will now have to explain why he has allowed our case to languish while playing ‘hide the ball’ with the courts to shield Fox from review.”
The appeals court’s order follows additional filings by the MAD Project questioning the FCC’s handling of other major proceedings, including the regulatory review associated with Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). The group cited the FCC’s decision to approve foreign ownership arrangements involving the combined company through a bureau-level order rather than a vote of the full Commission.
Ordinarily, FCC rules limit the amount of equity or investments that a foreign person or entity may commit or have in a company that holds broadcast radio or TV licenses. Paramount, now called Skydance, operates more than two dozen FCC-licensed local TV stations through its CBS News and Stations business.
The MAD Project referenced criticism from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who questioned the agency’s decision to allow significant indirect foreign ownership interests in the combined entertainment company without a Commission-level vote.
“The FCC just let some of the most repressive governments in the world indirectly control nearly all of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. An investment this large in one of America’s biggest media companies doesn’t just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and what gets made,” Gomez said in a statement e-mailed to The Desk last month.
Paramount closed on its acquisition of WBD on Tuesday after an antitrust case brought by several state attorneys general was settled. The company subsequently relaunched as Skydance, though Paramount and Warner Bros are still used as names for their respective business units.
