The Scoop
Democrats are trying to rein in the Federal Communications Commission following a spate of regulatory actions against broadcasters that President Donald Trump doesn’t like.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sens. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Ed Markey of Massachusetts announced they are introducing the Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act, a bill that proposes curtailing the FCC’s ability to strip broadcast licenses from stations that express oppositional political viewpoints to the president.
According to the bill’s text, which was first shared with Semafor, it would also prohibit the FCC from using the threat of investigation to force stations or media companies to comply with the whims of the president, and would prevent the president from firing FCC commissioners at will. The bill’s text also explicitly said the FCC could not consider political viewpoints as part of its approval over mergers.
House Democrats, led by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), plan to introduce a similar bill.
The move comes as newly appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr has moved aggressively to investigate a number of legacy and public broadcasters who fall under the FCC’s regulatory purview. In just a few months, the commission reopened probes into alleged bias at CBS and ABC, began looking into NBC over its diversity, equity, and inclusion workplace initiatives, and is investigating NPR and PBS over whether their sponsorships violate federal rules around advertising. The FCC is currently considering complaints against CBS News as part of its approval of a merger between CBS’ parent company, Paramount, and Skydance.
In a statement to Semafor, Luján, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee’s telecoms panel, said the FCC’s recent actions amounted to “intimidation of broadcast stations for political purposes” and was a “serious threat to the First Amendment.”
“The FCC and the President should not hold the power to revoke broadcasting licenses and censor free speech simply because they disagree with the viewpoints that are broadcasted,” Lujan said.
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Max’s view
The legislation has little chance of passing while Republicans control both houses and the White House. Carr has delighted Republican lawmakers, the White House, and conservative pundits with his willingness to aggressively investigate broadcast news organizations that they believe are anti-Trump.
Still, the bill is a signal to other Democrats who have been frustrated by the lack of pushback by Congress against the Trump administration. Carr’s regulatory moves have raised concerns among some news consumers and Democrats that the White House is hoping to intimidate outlets who might otherwise cover negative stories. Should they win back control of either the House or Senate in two years, Democrats could more meaningfully pursue changes to the FCC.
And not all of Carr’s moves have been popular with ideologically-aligned conservative media, either. In an interview earlier this year, Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade asked Carr whether his CBS probe would set a negative precedent for broadcasters who have to edit down interviews with high-profile figures, a sentiment that the Wall Street Journal editorial board echoed.
Room for Disagreement
Carr has argued that the news media has taken an unfair view of the FCC under his leadership. Asked by Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith last week about his recent regulatory actions, the new chairman criticized media organizations for failing to cover the previous FCC chair’s investigations into Fox stations following the Dominion Legal Systems lawsuit against Fox News (in one of her final acts in office, the outgoing chair dismissed the complaint). Carr also said his strategy was simply enforcing existing laws.
“The FCC is a place that operates by case law and by precedent. And these cases and precedent that were developed over the last four years were apparently not controversial when the Democrats were in charge,” Carr said. “I’m surprised that applying the same precedents is now considered controversial.”