Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr told a Senate committee on Wednesday that his agency is “not formally … independent.”
Shortly after Carr made that statement, the FCC apparently removed the word “independent” in a description of the agency’s work on its website.
Carr’s appearance before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee was his first since making controversial remarks in September that led ABC to briefly suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show.
Carr, a Trump appointee, made headlines in September over his response to comments Kimmel made following the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Carr responded with a threat aimed at Disney, which owns ABC.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told right-wing commentator Benny Johnson at the time. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Democrats on the panel pressed him on Wednesday over his criticism of Kimmel and his threats to companies over speech by their TV hosts.
Those Democrats painted Carr, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, as a threat to free speech and questioned whether the FCC was an independent arbiter, not beholden to the politics of a given presidential administration.
And FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, told the panel that under Carr, the agency is working to “intimidate government critics, pressure media companies and challenge the boundaries of the First Amendment.”
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., asked Carr: “Yes or no … is the FCC an independent agency?”
“On your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent. This isn’t a trick question,” Lujan added.
“The FCC is not formally an independent agency,” Carr responded.
Asked about the deletion of the word “independent” after Carr’s comments, an FCC spokesperson said via email on Wednesday: “With the change in Administration earlier this year, the FCC’s website and materials required updating. That work continues to ensure that they reflect the positions of the agency’s new leadership.”
During the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked Carr, “Do you think it is appropriate to use your position to threaten companies that broadcast political satire?”
Carr replied, “I think any licensee that operates on the public airwaves has a responsibility to comply with the public interest standard, and that’s been the case for decades.”
Federal law defining the public interest standard states that broadcast licensees must act in the “public interest, convenience or necessity.”
“You are not reinvigorating the public interest standard. You are weaponizing the public interest standard,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told Carr.
“That is what the Carr FCC is doing every single day,” said Markey, who urged Carr to resign.
Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, compared Carr to a “mob boss” after Kimmel was suspended
“That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it,'” Cruz said on his podcast in September.
“I like Brendan Carr. He’s a good guy, he’s the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him, but what he said there is dangerous as hell,” Cruz said at the time.
On Wednesday, Cruz called Kimmel “angry, overtly partisan and profoundly unfunny.” But the senator also said that the government should not be “arbitrating truth or opinion.”
Cruz said Democrats ignored First Amendment violations under the Biden administration, saying it tried to remove conservative figures from social media over what were deemed false statements related to Covid-19.
“Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills protected speech,” Cruz said.
Asked if he bore any responsibility for Kimmel’s suspension, Carr said: “They made these business decisions on their own. The record is clear on this.”
ABC’s suspension of Kimmel lasted less than a week after a public backlash over the move.
Shortly before the network suspended the host, Nexstar Media Group said it would preempt his show on all of its ABC affiliates.
Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2 billion merger with Tegna.
A group of House and Senate Democrats — including Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat on the Commerce panel — sent a letter to Carr this week urging the FCC to closely scrutinize the proposed merger and warning it would create “a media giant that would far outstrip its competitors.”
