CBS’ editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last November “looks like editorial judgment, not an instance of splicing footage to create a misleading response that never happened,” and the FCC probe into CBS isn’t justified by the previous administration’s action against Fox, the Wall Street Journal editorial board said in a column Sunday. News Corp. owns the WSJ and Fox. In a recent interview, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pointed to the previous FCC’s proceeding on WTXF Philadelphia as setting the precedent for the agency’s current news distortion investigation against CBS (see 2502060059).
The FCC’s investigation of CBS and demand for interview transcripts (see 2502050063) aren’t unprecedented because of the previous administration’s treatment of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday in an interview with Fox and Friends. “When the government's been weaponized in your favor, it feels like discrimination when all of a sudden there's even-handed treatment,” Carr said, calling critics of the CBS investigation “the radical left.” Under former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC opened a proceeding on WTXF’s license renewal in response to a petition from the Media and Democracy Project. MAD’s petition argued that a court finding that Fox had aired false news about the 2020 election was sufficient basis for the FCC to hold a hearing on its license. The open proceeding held up WTXF’s license renewal for a year and a half, but the FCC didn’t hold a hearing, act against WTXF or act on repeated requests from MAD to include documents and court filings from defamation cases against Fox in the record. Rosenworcel rejected the MAD petition as one of her last acts as chairwoman (see 2501160081). Though Carr’s FCC resurrected the news distortion complaint against CBS and other complaints against ABC and NBC, he let the dismissal of the petition against WTXF stand (see 2501220059). “A lot of people that have been on a sort of upper road of a two-tiered system of government, and what I'm here to do is apply the law evenly,” Carr said. Former Fox and Disney lobbyist Preston Padden, who supported the MAD petition, clapped back. “Carr’s comment is pure BS,” he told us. “I believe he is pursuing the CBS complaint for one reason -- Trump wants him to.” Fox didn't comment.
The FCC Media Bureau and Enforcement Bureau have set aside decisions made last week under the previous FCC chair to dismiss complaints against stations owned by ABC, CBS and NBC, according to orders filed in docket 25-11 Wednesday.
The FCC’s bureau-level rejections of four content-based legal challenges against network-owned TV stations Thursday could complicate future agency moves against broadcasters over their reporting but won’t prevent it, attorneys and free speech advocates told us. When he becomes chair next week, Commissioner Brendan Carr could quickly reverse the Media Bureau and Enforcement Bureau decisions rejecting challenges against ABC-, Fox-, NBC- and CBS- owned stations. However, doing so could require the agency to defend upending decades of precedent, broadcaster and public interest attorneys told us. The decisions “draw a bright line at a moment when clarity about government interference with the free press is needed more than ever,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release Thursday. “The FCC should not be the President’s speech police.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the agency's incoming chair, has waded into ABC’s negotiations with its affiliate stations while analyst and former FCC-er Blair Levin has suggested a way the outgoing chair could complicate Carr's attempts to thwart broadcasters.
The FCC should hold a hearing on Fox WTXF Philadelphia’s license to distinguish it from President-elect Donald Trump's recent attacks on broadcast licenses and establish a “bright-line test” on when such sessions are required, said the Media and Democracy Project in informal comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-293. The WTXF case, which stems from a court finding against Fox, is “easily distinguishable from routine complaints by politicians about the political slant of a particular channel or network's political slant or classic journalistic prerogatives,” said the MAD filing. Commissioner Brendan Carr's recent comments suggesting that as chair he will take up complaints against ABC and CBS over their content “illustrate the importance of this commission adopting a more clear bright line test that invokes the character provision of the Communications Act only after there has been a judicial finding,” MAD said. Although MAD acknowledged that lawmakers have asked Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to refrain from addressing controversial matters until the new administration is in office (see 2411080048), the group argued that holding a hearing wouldn’t violate that request. “For the FCC to hold a hearing regarding a broadcast license applicant recently found by a court of law to have knowingly and repeatedly presented false news is certainly not controversial,” MAD said. However, multiple lawmakers have asked that the FCC deny MAD’s petition (see 2402260064) and Commissioner Nathan Simington has characterized the hold on WTXF’s license as an “intentional and unwarranted political delay," MAD said (see 2409130062). “Failing to hold a hearing under these circumstances would be tantamount to declaring the character requirement of the Act no longer applicable.” Carr and Fox didn’t comment.
A news distortion complaint filed Wednesday against CBS by the Center for American Rights (CAR) over the network's recent interview with Vice President/Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is unlikely to result in FCC penalties. However, a wild card is the proposed Skydance/Paramount deal, which could spark FCC action on the news distortion complaint, attorneys told us. Paramount Global is CBS' parent.
Former President Donald Trump called Thursday for the FCC to pull licenses for all U.S. broadcast networks, an apparent escalation from his recent threats against ABC and CBS over what he claims has been biased coverage of his campaign as the Republicans’ 2024 nominee (see 2409110058). Trump has repeatedly sought FCC revocation of broadcasters’ licenses since early in his 2017-2021 administration (see 1710110075). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel quickly shot down Trump’s threat, going beyond her similar responses to past incidents (see 2409120056) and directly criticizing the former president.
The Media and Democracy Project has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC for any records of Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington communicating with Fox and the Heritage Foundation or that mention Project 2025 or the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, among other things. MAD has opposed the license renewal of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia (see 2407250056), and filed the FOIA in the docket on that proceeding Monday, docket 23-292. A number of prominent officials, including former FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan, former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol, co-signed the MAD FOIA request. The request should be granted because the policy positions of a future Trump administration are “matters of extreme interest for members of the public who wish to ensure that the Commission impartially applies its policies” to MAD’s petition and the matter of station licensing, it said. “It is obvious that candidate and former President Trump would oppose the MAD Petition, even though he has suggested that content- and viewpoint-based station licensing decisions are appropriate,” MAD said, noting Trump’s recent statements about ABC (see 2409230022). Simington dealt a blow to the FCC’s credibility when he “prejudged” the MAD petition in a recent letter to lawmakers (see 2409130062), MAD said. In addition, MAD said, Carr's and Simington’s involvement in Project 2025 (see 2407050015) also calls the agency’s objectivity into question. “It is essential that the FCC’s ethical integrity be confirmed through full disclosure of Commissioners’ official and personal communications related to the MAD petition and standards for station licensing, so there is no suspicion that any Commissioner has been influenced with respect to these important issues by partisan political interests or by partisan efforts to staff an upcoming administration,” the FOIA filing said. Fox, Carr and Simington didn’t comment.
The Media and Democracy Project petition against Fox’s station WTXF-TV Philadelphia isn’t “remotely similar to the occasional complaints by politicians about the political slant of a particular network or channel,” said former telecom lobbyist Preston Padden in an informal filing Tuesday responding to a recent statement from FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2409130062). “There is nothing political about the MAD Petition,” Padden said, adding that Simington was "mistaken" when he implied MAD's challenge of WTXF-TV’s license renewal wasn’t in line with the First Amendment. The petition “is not about speech,” Padden said. “It is about Fox’s conduct -- its business decision -- to knowingly and repeatedly choose to present false news, rather than the truth, in order to protect its profits.” Simington and Fox didn’t comment.