Center for Renewing America: Carr Didn't Threaten Broadcasters
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “acted responsibly in reminding broadcasters of their public interest obligations” when he urged stations to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September, said the Center for Renewing America in a paper filed in docket 22-459 and posted Tuesday.
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"Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said then on a podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Carr has said he was only laying out FCC policy (see 2509220059), but the comments were widely seen as a threat, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, compared them to something a gangster would say (see 2509190059).
Carr’s comments “reminded broadcasters of their statutory obligations and warned of remedies available under law, but he did not take or threaten enforcement action tied to that viewpoint,” the center's filing said. “A mere reminder of regulatory standards does not constitute an unlawful threat.”
Nexstar and Sinclair preempting Kimmel days after his monologue on Charlie Kirk but just hours after Carr’s comments “supports the conclusion that they exercised their own judgment,” the filing said. “Far from signaling the collapse of constitutionally protected free speech, actions surrounding Kimmel’s show reaffirm that constitutional governance continues to work.”
In separate comments filed alongside the paper, the center added, “A marketplace of ideas cannot function if the information it circulates is deliberately misleading. The public-interest standard should continue to include the principle that licensees avoid intentional distortion and act as stewards of public trust.”