Judges Consider Effort To Force FCC Action On News Distortion Policy

After a group of former FCC chairs and commissioners petitioned the agency to repeal its news distortion policy last November, the current chairman Brendan Carr never acted on it.

Last month, they asked an appellate court to compel him to do so.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel gave the FCC 30 days to respond to that effort, known in legalese as a writ of mandamus.

The former chairs and commissioners, joined with the Radio and Television Digital News Association, contend that Carr has used the news distortion policy “as a weapon to control news content and suppress viewpoints the government disfavors.”

“As the midterm elections approach, this abuse of regulatory power to shape voter perception and control information the electorate has access to is a particularly urgent matter,” they wrote in their court filing last month.

The FCC itself states that its authority to enforce the news distortion policy is narrow, and must involve “a significant event and not merely a minor or incidental aspect of the news report.” It also must involve deliberate distortion, not mere inaccuracy or difference of opinion.

Carr has invoked the policy numerous times. A news distortion complaint over CBS 60 Minutes editing of an interview with Kamala Harris last year led to an FCC investigation, and Carr cited the policy when he warned ABC stations over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and his comments about Charlie Kirk. The network pulled Kimmel’s show off the air for several days before reinstating him.

More recently, Carr, responding to Donald Trump‘s complaint about coverage of the war in Iran, wrote on X that broadcasters “that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up.”

The petition filed last November included Mark Fowler and Dennis Patrick, chairmen of the FCC under President Ronald Reagan; Alfred Sikes, chairman under President George H.W. Bush; and Tom Wheeler, chairman under President Barack Obama. They claimed that the news distortion policy has been “weaponized” by Carr and that, until recently, it had been enforced only in rare circumstances.

The legal team behind the petition includes the Protect Democracy Project, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Gigi Sohn of G Squared Strategies and Berin Szóka of Tech Freedom.

After their filing last year, Carr responded on social media, “How about no. On my watch, the FCC will continue to hold broadcasters accountable to their public interest obligations.”

He added, “And it is quite rich for the exact same people that pressured prior FCCs to censor conservatives *through the news distortion policy* to now object to the agency’s even-handed application of the law.”

Since then, the commission has taken no action, as Carr has not brought it to a vote. If that were to happen and the FCC declines to rescind the news distortion policy, there could then be a broader court challenge on appeal.

The group wrote in its filing last month, “Permitting the Commission to continue to ignore the News Distortion Petition will irreparably prejudice Petitioners and all broadcasters. The Chairman’s abuse of the news distortion policy is chilling broadcasters’ speech—incentivizing them to avoid coverage on controversial and partisan issues.”

An FCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.