Are television stations obligated to broadcast the U.S. president’s comments live on government-licensed airwaves? The current head of the FCC said he believes they are.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, appointed by President Trump, said Wednesday that the FCC will review ABC’s decision not to broadcast live President Donald Trump’s July 16 speech on U.S. election security as part of an expedited license review for ABC’s eight stations.
President Trump claimed in a speech last Thursday that the US election was “fraudulently rigged.” He claimed that China illegally accessed millions of voter files as part of a broader effort to manipulate the 2018 and 2020 U.S. elections. During his speech, Trump criticized ABC and NBC for choosing not to broadcast his remarks live, saying they should have their television broadcast licenses revoked for that reason. This is a threat he has made many times in the past in different situations. “In an unusual move, both NBC and ABC Fake News announced they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about,” Trump said, as reported by Politico. “Such fraud should mean revocation of your license.”
At a press conference Wednesday, Kerr said the FCC is holding a public hearing on ABC’s expedited review of its station license to assess whether it is “operating in the public interest,” and that “I’m sure there will be points made in that hearing” about Disney/ABC’s decision not to broadcast President Trump’s speech.
“When the president of the United States stands inside the White House and gives an important speech, I think that’s what the broadcasters should convey,” Kerr said. The FCC chairman added that he “will hold all broadcasters accountable” to similar public interest standards.
ABC declined to comment.
Broadcast television networks have a longstanding precedent of not broadcasting speeches by U.S. presidents live at their own discretion. At an FCC news conference, Anna Gomez, the agency’s only Democratic commissioner, pushed back on Kerr’s assertion that stations were obligated to air the president’s speech.
“We must always be mindful of the fact that the FCC does not dictate to broadcasters how to make editorial decisions or what content to run on networks or local stations,” Gomez said. “They have a First Amendment right to make those decisions. And in fact, that’s censorship in some way. If we tell them they can’t broadcast something, that’s censorship; if we say they have to, that’s coercion of speech. So there’s nothing here that violates any rules or legal provisions regarding these networks.”
Gomez added: “I continue to say that this nebulous public interest standard is being used only to punish speech the regime doesn’t like and reward speech it likes. That’s inappropriate and contrary to the law and the Constitution.”
In April, the FCC’s Bureau of Media issued an unprecedented order forcing ABC to reapply early for spectrum licenses for the eight stations it owns and operates. The move comes days after President Trump called for the firing of Jimmy Kimmel over jokes the late-night show host made about first lady Melania Trump. The FCC said the accelerated review of ABC’s license stems from the agency’s investigation into possible violations of discrimination provisions by Disney and ABC through the media conglomerate’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.
Disney subsequently submitted license renewal applications for eight ABC stations, which the company said it did “in protest of an unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional order.”
Last month, Disney launched a campaign on its stations encouraging viewers to share comments about the agency’s proceedings with the FCC.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Carr also spoke about the FCC’s plan to vote on removing the 39% limit on national ownership of television stations, which he said would allow local stations to “compete on a more level playing field” with national producers, with the added benefit of “bringing some balance back to the airwaves.”
