Five questions the FCC Senate oversight committee should ask Chairman Carr on Wednesday

On Wednesday, December 17, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold an oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where Brendan Carr will testify for the first time as Chairman of the FCC. 

Since his designation as chairman in January, Carr has publicly threatened broadcasters numerous times in an effort to manipulate media coverage. He has called on ABC and NBC to remove late-night show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers, investigated NPR and PBS over specious allegations that their advertisements violated federal law, and accused CBS News of news distortion following a 60 Minutes interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

One of Carr’s favorite justifications for his threats is the FCC’s little-known News Distortion Policy, which gives the FCC broad power to investigate and punish broadcasters for allegedly “distorting” the news, and has become a cudgel to chill speech and undermine First Amendment protections. 

Senators at the committee oversight hearing should require Chairman Carr to answer for his actions. Below are five questions they should ask.

1. Will Chairman Carr commit to vote on repealing the News Distortion Policy within the next six months? In November, a bipartisan coalition of seven former FCC chairs and commissioners–including both chairs appointed by President Reagan, Mark Fowler and Dennis Patrick–filed a formal petition calling on the FCC to rescind its News Distortion Policy. Chairman Carr refused, tweeting “How about no.” This petition has been submitted to the full commission, and Chairman Carr has previously committed to reducing needless delays in FCC proceedings. The Senate oversight committee should demand that Carr uphold this commitment and bring the petition to a vote.

2. Would Chairman Carr support a bipartisan effort by Congress to repeal the News Distortion Policy? The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that if Chairman Carr will not repeal the News Distortion Policy, “then maybe a free-speech caucus of Republicans and Democrats in Congress will.” With such strong bipartisan criticism, it begs the question: Why is Carr so at odds with the Conservative view of free speech? If the Chairman refuses to take action, legislative action may be necessary to protect the First Amendment and limit the FCC’s ability to censor and threaten media outlets.

3. Has the FCC under Chairman Carr opened or re-opened any investigation into a broadcast station because of a disagreement with its news coverage? Carr recently reopened the docket regarding CBS’s editing of its interview with Kamala Harris, also the subject of a lawsuit brought by President Trump. In March, a bipartisan group of former commissioners warned in a formal comment that failure to close the docket “would suggest that the Commission has been transformed into a tool of White House-driven speech suppression.” The American public deserves to know why Chairman Carr re-opened this investigation.

4. Does the FCC have the authority to monitor media, issue penalties, and suspend operations of outlets that it deems present “unbalanced” content? The Supreme Court recently held in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC that “it is no job for government to decide what counts as the right balance of private expression—to ‘un-bias’ what it thinks biased, rather than to leave such judgments to speakers and their audiences.” 

5. What differentiates the actions of the FCC under Chairman Carr’s leadership from those of authoritarian media regulators that coerce private media to support the government’s preferred narrative? With Carr’s recent actions, the committee must consider whether the FCC under his leadership acts as an authoritarian media regulator, much like Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban’s National Media and Infocommunications Authority.