WASHINGTON—In a press conference following the Federal Communications Commission’s May Open Meeting, Chair Brendan Carr promised the agency would move rapidly in a number of areas over the summer now that it has a quorum of Commissioners with the swearing in of Republican Olivia Trusty.
“I think we have a very, very busy, productive July and August in terms of a number of items that we've got teed up and ready to go,” Carr said.
During the press conference, Carr, also a Republican, reiterated that he wanted to boost local broadcasters by reexamining FCC’s ownership caps, said that the agency would act “soon” on his concerns over how EchoStar is using its spectrum, declined to provide a timeline when the agency would conclude its review of the Paramount Global-Skydance Media merger and once again argued that the FCC has the power to regulate news content from licensed broadcasters.
In response to a question that the FCC seemed to be moving towards lifting ownership caps for most broadcasters but retaining restrictions on stations owned and operated by national broadcast networks like ABC, CBS and NBC, Carr denied that was the case.
“Look at this point, we're very open-minded as to the outcome,” he said. “[A] whole range of options that could be possible. And if you sort of step back, one of the themes that I've tried to be pretty clear about, and maybe some people would think I’ve been too blunt about, is that I want to work to empower local broadcasters. I think if you again look at trust in media across the board, trust in…national programmers, particularly when it comes to ABC, CBS, NBC, trust in those outlets is at an all-time low. And so, separate from that, one thing I'm trying to do is continue to empower those local broadcasters to feel they can actually have the freedom to serve their local communities. So as we go forward in this proceeding, I'm open-ended, open-minded as to where we will ultimately end up. But again, one of the North Stars I've been looking at is empowering those local broadcasters.”
In addition to attacking the major broadcast networks, Carr also reiterated his view that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate content on cable networks like Fox News or OAN but that it does have the authority to regulate news content and news bias on broadcast stations.
“Congress has been very clear that the regulatory authority with respect to broadcasters is different than the regulatory authority with respect to cable,” he said. The difference is authority, he added, is based on the fact that “if they have access to a valuable public resource spectrum {and are given a license for] the 6 MHz of spectrum, we're necessarily denying other speakers the right to do that. Similarly, there's statutory benefits that you get from being a licensed broadcaster, including things that ultimately go to retransmission consent and whatnot….It's not my decision, it's Congress's decision that there's a very different regulatory structure. And again, the thing that's the subject of the regulation is different. What I'm talking about is making sure that broadcasters fulfill their public-interest obligation.”
Carr did not address the obvious issue of whether the FCC would have, under that philosophy, the authority to regulate content from cable networks like OAN or Fox News Channel that airs on broadcast stations.
Carr was also asked about an FCC’s investigation into Echostar that could result in the satellite provider losing wireless and satellite spectrum that Elon Musk’s Starlink and others would like to acquire.
In response, Carr declined to comment on a meeting that he attended with President Donald Trump and Echostar chairman Charlie Ergen. He did say, however, that “the status quo needs to change. There's lots of different paths forward there. And you know, all options are still on the table.”
He added that he expected the FCC to act “soon.”
In a press conference following Carr, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez explicitly rejected the idea that ownership caps should be removed and that the FCC has authority to regulate broadcast news content, which she called a clear violation of First Amendment rights.
“As you know, I launched my first amendment tour a few months ago to shine a light on the administration's campaign of censorship and control,” she said. “Since then, we've seen all kinds of actions aimed at silencing dissent and punishing critics. These aggressive tactics recently culminated in a U.S. senator being forcibly removed from a public event and thrown onto the ground simply for asking a government agency he oversees a question. This is what government censorship and control looks like today.”
In terms of ownership caps, Gomez complained: “Just hours before the national holiday, the FCC issued a notice that would begin the process to give billionaire-owned media conglomerates even more influence over what Americans see and hear. Most likely missed this last-minute release...and that's no accident, because we know, and they know, that this isn't about strengthening journalism or preserving local news. This FCC proposal to unleash a new era of unregulated media consolidation is only about helping the largest broadcast companies grow even larger at the expense of independent stations and the communities they serve. A media landscape dominated by a few national players will not deliver diverse local voices. Instead, it risks the loss of local jobs and local perspectives and the disappearance of independent, community-focused journalism.”
