Trump’s FCC Chairman Will Resurrect Bias Complaints Against ABC, NBC, CBS

President Trump’s pick to head the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, was widely expected to make life difficult for media organizations that didn’t align with the commander-in-chief’s agenda.

In his first week leading the powerful agency that oversees the nation’s communications, Carr has done just that, reviving complaints that the media’s alleged liberal bias. Throughout the campaign, Trump has antagonized certain broadcasters, saying the FCC should pull their broadcast licenses.

ABC, NBC and CBS felt Trump’s disdain.

On Wednesday, Carr revived the complaints that had been filed against the three. One targeted NBC for featuring former Vice President Kamal Harris in a “Saturday Night Live” skit four days before November, saying the network did not provide equal access to Trump. A second complaint questioned ABC News’ handling of the Trump-Harris debate in September. Trump complained about it ABC anchors were unfair to him.

The previous FCC chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, dismissed four complaints in her final week on the job, citing 1st Amendment protections for broadcasters. In addition to complaints from ABC and NBC, she refused CBS to edit Harris’ 60 Minutes interview, as well as a request by liberals to sanction Rupert Murdoch and his son Liberals on Fox News from Fox News for Fox News’ strengthening of the 2020 Trump election lies.

Although Carr went along with the dismissal of the complaint against the Murdochs, he quickly reinstated the others to the commission’s doctor.

Daniel Suhr, president of the conservative Chicago Center for American Rights, which has filed complaints against CBS, NBC and ABC alleging media bias, said he feels like a “legal Lazarus” after this week’s shift at the FCC.

“I applaud the chairman’s decision to reopen the complaints and make sure the commission does its due diligence to review what we believe are very serious concerns about bias,” Suhr told The Times. “We are trying to bring accountability back to these broadcasters to restore public confidence in them.”

Carr, a 46-year-old attorney from Washington, D.C., who has served on the commission since 2017, has also dismantled the FCC’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. He signed an order removing promotion of inclusion from the FCC’s strategic plan and stripping money for diversity programs from the agency’s budget.

“President Trump’s leadership on this matter will produce great results for the American people,” Carr said in a statement. “Today, I am announcing that I am ending promotion of the FCC’s DEI and focusing the agency’s work on competently fulfilling the FCC’s mission as defined by Congress.”

The moves have drawn the FCC into the center of a bitter debate over whether Trump will flex his power to punish media outlets he doesn’t like. Something Media experts are worried That Trump’s rhetoric, combined with compliant federal regulators, could have a chilling effect, leading to less critical press coverage.

CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global, are feeling the pinch.

Last fall, Trump pulled out of a scheduled interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” objecting to News magazine’s plans to investigate his claims. After Harris, the Democratic nominee, appeared on the program, Trump complained that CBS News had been deceptive edited the clip of her interview Place it in the best light. The network revealed that Harris gave mixed answers to questions about President Biden’s administration’s efforts to stop it War in the Middle East.

Trump quickly filed a $10 billion lawsuit in Texas against CBS over the clip, calling it “partisan and illegal acts of election and voter interference.” First Amendment experts called Trump’s lawsuit a gimmick.

CBS News denied that it manipulated Harris’ words. CBS said “60 Minutes” producers gave an excerpt of Harris’ interview to the network’s “Face the Nation,” which “used a longer section of her response than (what was on) 60 Minutes.” Same question. Same answer. But another part of the answer.”

“When we edit any interview, whether it’s a politician, athlete or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and to the point,” CBS said in a statement. “Part of her response on 60 Minutes was more succinct.”

The issue has created a headache for Paramount, which is seeking federal approval for its proposed $8 billion takeover of David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Some analysts expect the FCC complaint to create a speed bump for Paramount and Skydance as the two firms push to complete a merger this spring, giving the family control of Hollywood’s oldest film studios and networks.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Paramount executives were considering a settlement facilitate the merger. Paramount and Skydance declined to comment.

After the election, Carr told Fox News the FCC was closely scrutinizing the troubled Paramount-Skydance alliance.

As part of its complaint against CBS, the Sura Center for American Rights also asked the FCC to review Skydance’s relationship with Chinese technology and media firm Tencent, which invested in Ellison’s company. Some in Congress have also called for additional review.

Rep. Rep. John Mulenaard (R-Mich.), the chairman of the China Committee on China, said Wednesday that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should take a look.

“We’ve heard from many Hollywood executives about rampant self-censorship designed to outlast the Chinese Communist Party,” the Michigan Republican said. “Given that just this month the Department of Defense designated Tencent as a Chinese military company, CFIUS should scrutinize the proposed merger.”

NBC tried to quell Trump’s fury over Harris’ appearance on “Saturday Night Live” by giving him free airtime during a NASCAR race and a prominent football game to try to level the playing field.

ABC Television Walt Disney Co. in Philadelphia was the subject of a third complaint by the Center for American Rights. The station, WPVI-TV, transferred Extensively reviewed the ABC News discussionHarris and the one and only Trump.

In a separate dispute, Disney last month agreed to pay $1 million in Trump’s legal fees and donate Another 15 million dollars for Trump’s future presidential library to settle a lawsuit against Trump ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos After a journalist claimed during an on-air interview that a civil court jury found Trump “liable for rape” in a civil case. The jury actually found Trump guilty of “sexual assault.”

The settlement set off alarm bells for press freedom advocates. Some felt that Disney quickly settled the Stephanopoulos case to curry favor with the Trump administration.

Rosenworcel, in a statement earlier this month, said the FCC must guard against becoming “the president’s speech police.”

She did not elaborate on her decision to dismiss the complaint against Fox.

Murdoch’s critics filed a complaint with the FCC after Fox News paid $787.5 million to settle defamation lawsuit The 2020 election brought Dominion Voting Systems for the lies spread on Fox News about its voting machines. The group argued that the 93-year-old Australian tycoon and his son Lachlan, Fox’s chief executive, lacked the moral character required to hold the broadcasting licences.

Patrick Webre, the FCC’s chief of enforcement, wrote in Wednesday’s order that Rosenworcel’s cases in the ABC, CBS and NBC cases were “prematurely dismissed based on an insufficient investigative record regarding the matter involving the station.”

Despite the action, it’s unclear whether the complaints will actually move forward.

FCC officials must now investigate them. Ultimately, the full commission would vote on any enforcement action.

Blair Levin, a former top FCC official who is now an analyst at New Street Research, wrote in a note to clients Thursday that it is rare for the government to revoke a TV station’s license.

“Despite the scare from the president that companies should lose their licenses, we think the risk of that happening is extremely low,” Levin said in the report.