Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr says he will not rescind the agency’s controversial news distortion policy despite calls from a bipartisan group of former FCC chairmen and commissioners.
“How about otherwise,” Carr wrote in an X-post in response to the petition from former FCC leaders. “Under my watch, the FCC will hold broadcasters accountable to their public interest obligations.”
The petition filed yesterday by former FCC chairmen and commissioners calls on the FCC to rescind its 1960s news distortion policy, which Carr has repeatedly invoked in threats to revoke broadcast licenses. In the recent Jimmy Kimmel controversy, Carr said that ABC affiliates could have their license revoked for news distortion if they kept the comedian on air.
The petition says the Kimmel incident and several other Carr threats “reflect the extraordinary intrusion on editorial decision making, which Chairman Carr clearly understands the news distortion policy to allow.” The petition argued that “the purpose of the policy – eliminating bias in news – is not a legitimate government interest”, that it chills the speech of broadcasters, that it is weaponized for partisan purposes, that it is overly vague, and that it is unnecessary given the separate rule against broadcast fraud.
The petition states, “The news distortion policy is no longer justified under First Amendment doctrine and is not necessary in today’s media environment… The Commission should repeal the policy in its entirety and recognize that it cannot investigate or penalize broadcasters for ‘distorting’, ‘skewing’, or ‘staging’ a news story unless the broadcast in question independently disseminated a dangerous rumor under 47 CFR § 73.1217 Does not meet the high standard to be met,” the petition states.
News distortion policy is rarely enforced
The petition was filed by Republican Mark Fowler, who chaired the FCC from 1981 to 1987; Dennis Patrick, a Republican who chaired the FCC from 1987 to 1989; Alfred Sykes, a Republican who chaired the FCC from 1989 to 1993; Tom Wheeler, a Democrat who chaired the FCC from 2013 to 2017; Andrew Barrett, a Republican who served as commissioner from 1989 to 1996; Ervin Duggan, a Democrat who served as commissioner from 1990 to 1994; and Rachel Chong, a Republican who served as Commissioner from 1994 to 1997.