As President Donald Trump continues to attack media organizations, the Federal Communications Commission is uniquely positioned to weaponize its regulatory framework to help him. Critics say it’s already started.
The FCC is turning into a “wing of the MAGA movement” under its Trump-appointed chair, Brendan Carr, said Timothy Karr of Free Press, a nonprofit that promotes free speech and press freedom.
“I think there’s an emerging pattern here of collusion between the Trump White House and Trump Inc. and the Carr FCC,” Karr said. “I think we’re going to see this pattern play out throughout the remainder of Trump’s term, and we’re going to see other media companies that anger Trump subject to this kind of coordinated attack from the White House and the FCC.”
Multiple times this year, media organizations have found themselves in the crosshairs of Trump and the FCC. In March, the FCC launched investigations into ABC and its parent company, Disney, over their diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Earlier this year, Carr revived a federal inquiry into CBS over its preelection “60 Minutes” interview of the then-Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris. The complaint, which Carr declined to dismiss after CBS’s request, accuses the network of “news distortion.”
In both cases, the efforts at the FCC came after complaints from the Trump administration about the policies and practices of news organizations.
There could be more to come. In late August, Trump accused ABC and NBC of being an “arm of the democrat party” and said they should have their licenses revoked by the FCC or, at minimum, face fines.
“I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our democracy,” he posted on Truth Social.
The White House and the FCC did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.
Though the president picks its chair, the FCC operates as an independent agency. Jane Mago, who served as general counsel for the FCC during George W. Bush’s administration and for the National Association of Broadcasters, told NOTUS that the agency didn’t have “ultra-independence” because coordination was sometimes necessary.
“I oftentimes had interactions with the folks in the Justice Department,” Mago told NOTUS. “But there was no one that gave directions, if you will, to the commissioner specifically.”
Too much influence over the FCC from the executive is harmful, advocates say, and poses a real threat to press freedom. The result is a situation where Trump, who has a stake in what the media says, is also in a position of influence and control over the media.
“While people may be concerned about the editorial policies of their different media choices, the government is not a neutral player in that the government, whoever it is, has skin in the game. So we don’t want them making the editorial decisions,” Mark Jamison, a member of Trump’s FCC transition team and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said. He added that the marketplace can also address such issues: If people don’t like the content, the company won’t survive.
The FCC has significant leverage over the companies it regulates. Without the licenses Trump is seeking to revoke from NBC and ABC, they wouldn’t be able to operate.
Though revoking the licenses would be difficult, there’s a lot the FCC could do that would be just as harmful to media organizations.
For example, the FCC is considering changing the “39% rule,” which stipulates that a single entity can’t own broadcast stations that collectively reach more than 39% of U.S. TV households. The cap was meant to prevent overconcentration of information sources, Mago said, but media companies have long argued the rules are outdated, and have spent millions lobbying to either lift or eliminate the cap.
Carr has floated lifting the cap for some companies— but leaving out stations owned and operated by the “big four” networks. Some critics see this as another way the FCC could leverage its rules to penalize networks that aren’t friendly to Trump, preventing them from taking part in the newly opened market.
The FCC can’t censor specific viewpoints, but it can launch investigations or jam up business deals. Sen. Adam Schiff is currently calling for the FCC to disclose whether Trump colluded with the agency to extract a $16 million settlement in his lawsuit against CBS. Trump said he received the $16 million mere days before the FCC approved a merger between CBS and Skydance Media.
Ultimately, the erosion of the FCC’s independence means that any news outlet that the president considers biased could face punishment as a result.
Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner on the FCC, told NOTUS that the agency “must stop its focus on partisan culture wars and should instead turn to its core mission.”
“The FCC has a duty to ensure our media ecosystem serves the public, not billion-dollar corporations who may be too worried about political retribution to challenge this Administration,” Gomez said in a statement. “This is exactly why Congress established the FCC as an independent, stable, and expert-driven body whose decisions were meant to be beyond the reach of the current occupant of the White House.”