All posts tagged "Brendan Carr"

President Donald Trump's top communications regulator is being haunted by words he wrote just a few years ago.

In a column published Friday by The Bulwark, critic Sonny Bunch zeroed in on a February 2021 statement from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr condemning Democrats for sending letters to cable providers and other regulated companies that carried certain news outlets.

At the time, Carr warned those companies were being told they "will pay a price" if the targeted newsrooms didn't fall in line, calling it "a chilling transgression of the free speech rights that every media outlet in this country enjoys."...

The Trump administration was facing an army of furious fans and advocates of "The View" after ABC called on people to fight back against the agency's probe.

More than 77,000 comments were filed with the FCC by defenders of the long-running daytime talk show, which reportedly prompted the show to make booking changes this week.

Fans and advocacy groups made it clear ahead of the July 6 deadline that they were rallying in support of the ABC show. Viewers voiced concern that the show's producers, hosts, and journalists — not the FCC — should decide who appears on air. This came after the FCC revealed in February that it had opened an investigation into the widely watched daytime program....

Inside sources revealed to Semafor that “The View,” the top-rated daytime talk show on television, succumbed to pressure from the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and “changed [its] programing,” the outlet reported Sunday night.

Back in February, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that his agency was investigating the program for potential violations of a 1934 rule that mandates certain media stations provide equal time to political candidates. As noted by Semafor, “since then, the ABC talk show hasn’t featured a single political candidate running in a competitive midterm race.”

“The inquiry itself has been enough to force the network to hedge which guests appear on the show, a notable departure from The View’s previous booking decisions,” Semafor’s report reads....

While applying to renew its licenses, ABC dug into a Trump official for his "assault" on speech and TV stations, per a new report.

ABC filed applications for eight TV stations and blasted an order by Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to begin an early license renewal process for ABC, according to reporting by Politico.

"The Order is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment," one of the eight applications read. ...

Trump's main media enforcer made a stunning admission while reflecting on his legacy in a recent interview.

“I’m sure The New York Times has already written my obituary," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in an interview with The Financial Times. "There's not a lot that I can do to improve upon it or make it worse at this point in time."

Carr's glum outlook on his legacy comes as he's going after Trump's TV foes since he was appointed as FCC chair in early 2025. He has threatened ABC over Jimmy Kimmel jokes and pressured CBS not to air an interview with a Democrat on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert. He's even gone after programs like "The View" and flagged transgender content in children's programming. ...

A Democratic congressman on Saturday issued a stern warning to a Trump official seen as threatening overreach on Free Speech in media.

Trump's pick, Commissioner of Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr, over the weekend issued a warning of his own to broadcast media outlets. In a statement, Carr declared: "Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not."

Carr's comments represented an unprecedented direct threat by a Trump administration official to use regulatory authority over media licensing as a tool to influence news coverage. One Democratic lawmaker pointed out as much in a post using some profanity....