“I think President Trump is over the target, and we’re looking at a lot of actions,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Sunday on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”
Carr was talking about television broadcasters. Unlike cable and online platforms, he said, broadcast stations use FCC-licensed public airwaves, so they must “operate in the public interest, not some sort of narrow partisan interest.”
He did not announce a specific case. What he did say was that the agency may soon put out guidance on what he called “fake polls.” Broadcasters need reminding of their obligations, Carr said, “particularly if they’re done to suppress people heading into the fall.”
The Welker dispute
The interview followed a fight between Trump and NBC News. On Aug. 30, NBC’s Kristen Welker said Trump-endorsed candidates had posted “mixed results” in Republican primaries and that Trump would “loom large” over the midterms. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.”
Ballotpedia puts Trump’s record in this year’s primaries at 96 percent wins. The losses include Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.
NBC News said it stands by Welker, calling her “one of the best in the business.” Anna Gomez, the Democratic FCC commissioner, answered Trump on X. “The FCC has no authority to punish journalists this administration doesn’t like,” she wrote. “These threats to press freedom are dangerous.”
What the agency’s own rules say
The FCC’s guidance says it generally does not step in just because broadcast journalism is inaccurate or one-sided. Its news-distortion policy requires documented evidence that a licensee or its management intentionally falsified news, a limit rooted in the First Amendment.
Trump has pressed the commission to act against broadcasters he accuses of bias throughout his second term. This year the FCC ordered early license reviews for eight ABC-owned stations. Disney sued, alleging political retaliation, and Reuters reported the FCC asked a federal court last week to dismiss the suit. Carr has also opened investigations into NBC’s and ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices.
Not every Republican is comfortable with the approach. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said last year that Carr’s threats of action against ABC were “dangerous as hell,” after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended over comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Sources
- FCC Chair Brendan Carr Warns Broadcasters Over ‘Fake Polls’ Ahead of Midterms, Says Trump Is ‘Over the Target’
- Carr: FCC ‘looking at a lot of actions’ to stop broadcasters’ partisan coverage – AOL
