Nearly two dozen civil rights and media advocacy groups have endorsed a letter sent to Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, accusing him of weaponizing the agency to fulfill certain political goals since his promotion earlier this year.
In a joint letter sent to the FCC on Tuesday, the organizations condemned what they described as Carr’s “unprecedented weaponization” of the agency’s licensing authority against major television networks. The groups urged Carr to “affirm unequivocally” that the FCC will not act as a political enforcement arm or interfere with broadcasters’ editorial independence.
The letter was endorsed by 22 groups, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the National Urban League, the NAACP and the Latino Community Foundation.
The groups complain about an increase in targeted attacks against the news media by President Donald Trump, who has long complained about unfavorable news coverage. Over the past year, he has squeezed out multi-million dollar judgments from news organizations by suing them.
Trump’s influence has trickled down to Carr, whom he nominated to serve as chairman of the FCC in January. Since then, Carr has sent letters to Comcast and the Walt Disney Company with questions about their diversity programs. The FCC also delayed its decision on an application to transfer CBS broadcast licenses from Paramount Global to Skydance Media until Paramount agreed to settle a frivolous news distortion lawsuit brought by Trump; the issue prevented Paramount and Skydance’s merger from closing until the FCC acted on the application.
The groups say Trump, through Carr, has engaged in an “unprecedented weaponization of the FCC’s regulatory authority against television broadcasters to gain leverage in personal legal matters, extract financial settlement payments and intimidate the news divisions to silence dissenting views and critical coverage.”
The groups said the FCC “has no lawful authority to influence network newsrooms’ editorial decisions” and can’t “coerce networks’ parent companies to pay millions of dollars to the president…as a condition of doing business.”
“These are the actions of lawless authoritarians, not of honorable public servants,” the organizations stated.
The letter comes about a week after nearly four dozen public interest groups urged Carr to resign over his handling of a controversy involving ABC and its late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
In mid-September, Carr complained about the contents of a monologue that aired on an episode of Kimmel’s show, and his concerns ultimately convinced two large broadcasters — Nexstar and Sinclair — to pre-empt the show from their ABC affiliates. Nexstar and Sinclair both have pending, business-related transactions that require FCC approval.
ABC put Kimmel’s show on hiatus for about a week. Nexstar and Sinclair began airing new episodes of the program a few days later.
Several watchdog organizations have also filed complaints with the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, accusing Carr of acting unethically as a licensed lawyer by abusing his powers at the FCC for political gains.
“By invoking the coercive authority of a federal regulatory agency to punish political speech, Mr. Carr undermined not only First Amendment principles but also public confidence in the fair administration of government regulation,” one complaint said.
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Read more:
- Lawmakers demand answers from Nexstar, Sinclair over Jimmy Kimmel suspension
- Watchdog files bar complaint against FCC Chairman Carr over Kimmel controversy
- ABC pulls “Jimmy Kimmel Live” amid threats from FCC chairman
- Law firm files FCC complaint against TV station over Kimmel monologue
- Trump urges FCC to pull TV station licenses over negative coverage
- Broadcasters who criticized Jimmy Kimmel have deals pending before FCC
