Tag: fcc

FCC’s Brendan Carr Advances Investigation into NPR, PBS Running ‘Prohibited’ Ads

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr advanced his investigation into NPR and PBS running “prohibited” commercials.

Carr ordered an investigation in early January into the taxpayer-funded NPR and PBS, believing the nonprofits are running commercials that they are barred from airing.

“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Carr wrote at the time. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

Public broadcasting stations are prohibited from running commercials, and instead they often air corporate underwriting spots, which cannot issue a “call to action” to urge listeners to purchase a product or service.

An FCC source said, at the end of last week, the agency sent out 15 letters of inquiry, two to NPR and PBS, and 13 letters to their affiliates, seeking to know more about their advertising and prospective underwriting practices.

Some of these stations include WETA, the Washington, DC, PBS station, WAMU, the American University NPR local affiliate in the D.C. area, and WNYC, a New York City NPR affiliate in the Big Apple.

“For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace,” Carr continued.

This is not the only inquiry the FCC has taken since Carr has led the telecommunications regulatory agency.

Keep reading

FCC Chair Brendan Carr Wants More Control Over Social Media

In his short time as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr has been no stranger to using his power against disfavored entities. The chairman’s targets have primarily included broadcast networks and social media companies.

Recently, Carr revealed a fundamental misunderstanding about one of the most important laws governing the internet and social media.

On February 27, digital news outlet Semafor held a summit in Washington, D.C., titled “Innovating to Restore Trust in News,” which culminated in a conversation between Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith and Carr.

“The social media companies got more power over more speech than any institution in history” in recent years, Carr told Smith. “And I think they’re abusing that power. I think it’s appropriate for the FCC to say, let’s take another look at Section 230.”

Section 230 of the Communications Act effectively protects websites and platforms from civil liability for content posted by others. It also protects a platform’s decision to moderate content it finds “objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.”

Like many conservatives, Carr looks askance at social media’s latitude to moderate content with what he perceives as impunity. “The FCC should issue an order that interprets Section 230 in a way that eliminates the expansive, non-textual immunities that courts have read into the statute” and “remind courts how the various portions of Section 230 operate,” he wrote in a chapter of The Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership, more popularly known as Project 2025.

Keep reading

FCC Considers Revoking CBS License Over Kamala Harris’ ’60 Minutes’ Interview Controversy

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reportedly considering revoking CBS’s broadcast license after the network aired a controversial interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes.” The interview sparked widespread outrage and calls for accountability after the network aired a misleading version, including highly distorted answers from Harris’ responses. According to a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump, CBS violated state law by demonstrating deceptive acts in business conduct and “doctored” a “word salad” response from the failed Democrat presidential candidate about the Biden administration’s involvement in the Israel-Hamas war. The FCC’s review stems from concerns that the interview may have violated broadcasting standards, prompting scrutiny over whether CBS acted in the public interest. 

In the past two weeks, FCC Chair Brendan Carr launched investigations into three news outlets and reinstated complaints against three others, including NBC and ABC. The complaint against ABC received a “news distortion” complaint over its fact-checking by the moderators in the presidential debate between Harris and Trump that heavily favored Harris. Meanwhile, the complaint against NBC claimed that Harris’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” which aired just weeks before the election, violated “equal time” rules governing political programming.

Former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, dismissed any probe into the interview, saying the complaints “seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment.”

However, Carr said he doesn’t “see how the FCC can reasonably adjudicate this claim of news distortion without seeing what was actually said.” 

Keep reading

CBS Agrees to Turn Over 60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris Interview Script to FCC

CBS News announced it would hand over the transcript of its “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at the center of President Trump’s lawsuit against the company.

The FCC, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, sent a letter of inquiry on Wednesday demanding the “full, unedited transcript and camera feeds” from the network’s October interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do,” a CBS News spokesman said in a statement Friday. 

This comes amid settlement discussions between President Trump and the news outlet’s parent company, Paramount, over Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News accusing the outlet of deceptively editing its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris.

The New York Times reported that there is “no assurance” the two parties will reach a deal, but noted that “Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports the effort to settle.”

CBS News came under fire shortly after airing its Harris interview when “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes” aired two different answers by Harris to the same question.

Harris’s unedited answer aired by Face the Nation appeared to be an incoherent word salad related to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oftentimes answers are truncated or slightly edited for time, but “60 Minutes” aired a completely different response by Harris in its interview.

The Trump campaign then claimed Harris’ “word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response.”

“60 Minutes” responded that Trump’s characterization the outlet deceptively edited the interview was “false,” admitting it edited Harris’ answer but argued the alteration was not deceptive.

Keep reading

Trump’s FCC Chair Launching Investigation of NPR and PBS, Taxpayer Funding Under Increased Scrutiny

Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Trump, is launching an investigation of National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

Both organizations are already facing the loss of taxpayer funding, but this investigation will increase pressure on lawmakers to pull that funding.

Conservative Americans have been calling for the defunding of NPR and PBS for years. There are countless examples of these organizations acting as surrogates for the Democrat party. They do not even try to appear politically balanced, even though they are funded in part by taxpayers.

FOX News reports:

Trump FCC chair targets NPR, PBS for investigation ahead of Congressional threats to defund

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an investigation into media outlets PBS and National Public Radio (NPR) over member stations potentially airing “prohibited commercial advertisements,” according to a letter obtained by The New York Times.

“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” FCC chair Brendan Carr wrote, according to the Times. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

The FCC allows businesses to support noncommercial radio and television stations — such as NPR, PBS or college radio stations — via on-air announcements known as underwriting sponsorships. The sponsorships, though similar to advertisements, face different FCC rules than typical TV or radio ads.

Keep reading

NewsGuard Criticizes FCC’s Brendan Carr for Questioning Its Role in Alleged “Censorship Cartel”

NewsGuard, a company that provides a rating system for sites that can then facilitate flagging “misinformation,” is reported to have in the past been recommended to its members by the now disbanded Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) – as they allegedly banded together to demonetize social platforms and some news sites.

In November, member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr – who President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to head the agency – sent a letter to major tech companies, asking for information about their work with NewsGuard.

The company, set up in 2018, is now accusing Carr of potentially violating the First Amendment by posing these questions, and claims that its work “does not involve censorship.”

However, that can be seen as a technicality, given that its browser add-ons that rate sites for “credibility” provide a tool for those who do end up carrying out censorship, which was the focus of Carr’s interest in the role of NewsGuard in the broader “censorship cartel.”

NewsGuard responded to Carr’s letter with its own in early December, stating the company was “surprised” to learn about the commissioner’s inquiries from the media.

Keep reading

NBC strategically timed Harris’ promo on ‘SNL’ to get around federal law: FCC commissioner

NBC’s apparent attempt to give Kamala Harris a last-minute boost with a cringey spot on “Saturday Night Live” — which some critics have called an “in-kind donation” — appears to have been strategically timed in order to “evade” Federal Communications Commission rules, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said ahead of the Nov. 2 broadcast.

Carr, in the Republican minority on the commission, noted on X ahead of Harris’ appearance, “This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule. The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election.”

While the FCC’s equal opportunities rule established by the Communications Act of 1934 does not require that networks like NBC “provide opposing candidates with programs identical to the initiating candidate,” networks generally must provide “comparable time and placement.”

Carr indicated that in recent elections, NBC at least made an effort to follow the equal time rule.

The Hollywood Reporter noted, for instance, that in 2015, then-candidate Trump appeared on “Saturday Night Live” during the Republican primary for a total of 12 minutes and five seconds. NBC subsequently offered the same amount of airtime to his opponents.

“NBC stations publicly filed Equal Opportunity notices to ensure that all other qualifying candidates could obtain Equal Time if they sought it,” wrote the commissioner. “Stations did the same thing when Clinton appeared on SNL.”

The equal time rule did not require NBC to seek out President Donald Trump and ask him if he similarly wanted to appear on “Saturday Night Live” but requires that the network entertain requests by the Republican president.

Carr suggested that the last-minute nature of Harris’ “Saturday Night Live” spot was ostensibly the liberal outlet’s way of flouting the FCC’s rule.

Keep reading

FCC commissioner claims Harris on ‘SNL’ violates ‘equal time’ rule

A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner has claimed that Vice President Harris’s recent appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” commonly known as “SNL,” violates the “equal time” rule.

“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” Commissioner Brendan Carr posted on the social platform X on Saturday in response to a post from The Associated Press about Harris being on the show that night. 

“The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns,” Carr, a Trump appointee, continued.

The FCC’s “equal time” rules let rival candidates ask for equal air time. 

During her appearance on this week’s episode of “SNL,” Harris joined comedian Maya Rudolph, who often impersonates her, for a cold open sketch. While Rudolph was playing the vice president, Harris began her “SNL” debut on the other side of a mirror from the comedian.

“I’m just here to remind you, you got this, because you can do something your opponent can’t do — you can open doors,” Harris told Rudolph, seemingly referring to a video from earlier in the week in which former President Trump had a hard time grabbing the handle of a garbage truck door.

The executive producer of “SNL,” Lorne Michaels, had said in a past interview that neither Harris nor Trump would make appearances on his show during this election cycle.

Keep reading

CBS Hit With FCC Complaint Charging “Significant And Intentional News Distortion” Over Edited Kamala Interview 

CBS News has been formally issued with an FCC complaint regarding its surreptitious editing of Kamala Harris’ 60 Minutes interview.

The complaint charges that the network engaged in “significant and intentional news distortion.”

Edited and unedited portions of the interview were shared side by side as it became clear CBS was attempting to make Harris appear less incompetent.

Fox News reports that The Center for American Rights argues that the discrepancies “amount to deliberate news distortion — a violation of FCC rules governing broadcasters’ public interest obligations.”

The complaint seeks to force CBS to release an unedited transcript of the interview to set the record straight.

Keep reading

Complaints Ask FEC, FCC To Investigate ABC For Breaking Broadcast And Donation Rules In Debate

Remember that brazenly biased presidential debate on Sept. 10, hosted by ABC television? The one where ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis “fact-checked” former President Donald Trump five times and Vice President Kamala Harris, not at all?  The one advertised as a legitimate debate that felt more like a 90-minute campaign commercial for Harris?

The Center for American Rights has filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), asking these agencies to hold ABC and its local affiliate accountable on two matters: an alleged campaign donation violation, and a concern about its television broadcast license.  

Unlike print media, broadcast airwaves belong to the public. While anyone can find some paper, start their own newsletter, and say whatever they want, there is a finite number of airwaves across the broadcast spectrum, so they belong to everyone. That is why the FCC licenses segments of the airwaves to broadcasters with the condition that they must use a certain amount of their broadcast time to serve the public.

“One of the obligations of stewarding the airwaves in the public interest is that debates must be fair and impartial, and when you fail at that, there must be accountability from the regulator,” Daniel Suhr, attorney at the Center for America Rights, told The Federalist in a phone interview. “The media have been pushing the boundaries for decades and what ABC did was further than what anyone had done previously.”

Keep reading