Key Points
- FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said Chairman Brendan Carr’s threats against broadcasters over news coverage are baseless and legally unsupported.
- Gomez noted the FCC has no broadcast license renewals scheduled until 2028, making enforcement unlikely.
- She warned the threats are meant to intimidate broadcasters and could have a chilling effect on press freedom.
The lone Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says recent threats made against broadcasters by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr are baseless because the agency has not taken enforcement action against licensed TV stations for news content.
In a statement released on Monday, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez encouraged reporters to “stop falling for the FCC’s intimidation tactics” following widespread news coverage of Carr’s social media posts, during which he threatened the broadcast licenses of radio and TV stations over unfavorable coverage of President Donald Trump’s ongoing military campaign against Iran.
The comments were prompted by a social media post from Trump that complained about newspaper coverage of a bombing campaign from Iran against a U.S. Air Force base in Saudi Arabia, during which five refueling aircraft were either destroyed or heavily damaged.
Carr reminded broadcast stations that they have a “public interest” obligation associated with their FCC-issued licenses, and threatened to cancel the licenses upon renewal if the outlets air news coverage that the administration deems unfavorable.
In her statement, Gomez noted that the FCC does not have any broadcast licenses up for renewal until at least 2028, which means enforcement action against a TV or radio station that doesn’t fall in line with the Trump administration is unlikely to face any serious consequences over their news coverage.
“Early renewal attempts are exceedingly rare, and the process is so demanding that any effort would almost certainly fail, especially given the well-documented First Amendment violations underlying these moves,” Gomez said. “These threats are grounded in neither reality nor law and would not survive judicial scrutiny, just as other recent attempts by this Administration to push beyond constitutional limits have repeatedly failed in court.”
Gomez also pointed out that the FCC doesn’t have regulatory powers over national news organizations because “it licenses local broadcast stations, not networks.” All five major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, the CW Network and NBC — own local TV stations that are licensed by the FCC.
Gomez said Carr’s politically-motivated threats are intended to have a chilling effect on broadcasters, including those with pending business-related transactions that require FCC approval.
“Over the past year, this FCC has attacked the media as part of a years-long campaign by this Administration and its allies to discredit factual, independent coverage while blaming the press for growing public distrust,” Gomez wrote. “Meanwhile, it is the FCC’s own credibility and public trust that are rapidly eroding. Out of the many politically motivated FCC investigations targeting perceived government critics, not a single one has resulted in an enforcement action. This follows a well-established pattern of threatened investigations, broadcast license revocations and regulatory harassment aimed at pressuring broadcasters and their corporate parents to comply or capitulate in advance.”
One of the core elements that allows Carr to weaponize the agency’s enforcement abilities is a Congressional mandate that broadcast radio and TV stations operate in the “public interest” as an obligation of their FCC-issued license. The term has never been defined; historically, radio and TV stations have pointed to their local and national news programming as proof of operating in the public interest.
Last October, Gomez called for the FCC to embrace a firm definition of the term “public interest” to remove any ambiguity, especially when it comes to proposed or actual enforcement actions. So far, Carr has not acted on that request.
More Stories
- NAB CEO: Trump administration favorable to broadcasters
- Groups accuse FCC Chairman Carr of weaponizing agency
- FCC Commissioner Gomez: Time for firm “public interest” definition
- FCC Chairman Carr defends trolling broadcasters in Senate hearing
- Senators blast FCC Chairman Carr’s absence at hearing on free speech
- FCC Chairman Carr says broadcasters should air “pro-America programming”
- FCC chairman says agency investigating “The View” over Talarico interview
- FCC Commissioner Gomez says agency not investigating “The View”
- FCC Chairman says “partisan motivation” will dictate equal time enforcement
- FCC says talk show interviews not exempt from equal time rule
- Poll: Most Americans oppose loosening federal broadcast ownership rules
- FCC Chairman Carr targets broadcast TV licenses
- Trump’s FCC Chairman threatens broadcast licenses over war propaganda
