Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has revived three complaints against broadcast stations accused of bias against President Donald Trump.
Outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week directed the FCC to dismiss the complaints against CBS, ABC, and NBC stations, along with a fourth complaint about Fox, in what she called a stand for the First Amendment. Rosenworcel said the “threat to the First Amendment has taken on new forms, as the incoming President has called on the Federal Communications Commission to revoke licenses for broadcast television stations because he disagrees with their content and coverage.”
But in three orders issued yesterday, the FCC Enforcement Bureau reversed the CBS, ABC, and NBC decisions. “We find that the previous order was issued prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record for the station-specific conduct at issue,” each new order said. “We therefore conclude that this complaint requires further consideration.”
The revived complaints target WNBC in New York, WCBS in New York, and 6 ABC in Philadelphia (also known as WPVI-TV). The complaints were filed by the Center for American Rights and supported Trump’s claims of bias regarding ABC’s fact-checking during a presidential debate, the editing of a CBS 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, and NBC putting Harris on a Saturday Night Live episode. The complaints against CBS and ABC were made under the FCC’s news distortion rules, while the complaint against NBC alleges a violation of the FCC’s Equal Time rule.
“We must respect the First Amendment”
Commissioner Anna Gomez, one of two Democrats on the commission, criticized the Carr FCC’s decisions. “As I stated last week, we cannot allow our licensing authority to be weaponized to curtail freedom of the press,” Gomez said yesterday. “The First Amendment is a pillar of American democracy, and our country needs a press free from interference from regulators like me. In fact, the Communications Act explicitly prohibits the Commission from censoring broadcasters. We must respect the protections of the First Amendment and the restrictions in the Communications Act.”
The previous decisions were easy to reverse. There’s an FCC rule saying that the agency “may, on its own motion, set aside any action made or taken by it within 30 days from the date of public notice of such action.”
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