Three Senate Democrats are urging Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to stop investigations of TV and radio broadcasters that the lawmakers say appear to be impermissible attempts to damage the press over coverage Carr dislikes.
The senators, led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), referred to FCC demands to see a transcript of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, alongside the agency’s moves to reinstate complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC and launching probes of PBS and NPR.
You can read the full letter, which was also addressed to Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington, here. This is what the senators said about the FCC’s recent actions:
In addition to Markey, Democratic Sens. Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) and Gary Peters (Mich.) signed the letter. All three serve on the Commerce Committee. In the note, they complained that Carr recently reinstated past complaints about ABC, CBS and NBC, but not Fox.
On “60 Minutes,” the trio of Senate Democrats wrote that the transcript of the full interview reveals that excerpts that aired on TV showed journalists choosing among different “answers to the same question — a quintessential example of editorial decision-making” that must be protected from government meddling. Carr had suggested the transcript might reveal “distortion” in violation of FCC policies.
The Democrats also said Carr acted “baselessly” in telling the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to look into the underwriting practices of PBS and NPR member stations. The senators slammed the chair for calling on Congress to defund the two networks, calling it “a partisan political goal of congressional Republicans that is outside the FCC’s jurisdiction.”
The senators said actions from Carr and Simington were taken “at the behest of President Donald Trump.”
The Democratic trio didn’t mention Carr’s latest directive to the Enforcement Bureau to investigate “Comcast and NBCUniversal’s Promotion of DEI.” In that move, Carr suggested that racial classifications could violate civil rights law.
In the Comcast probe, which Carr disclosed via X Wednesday, the chair also teased efforts to try to stop programming.
“[T]he FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act and the agency’s [equal employment opportunity] rules, including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr said.
