Exiting FCC Chair Warns That Agency “Should Not Be The President’s Speech Police” As Broadcast News Complaints Are Dismissed
deadline.comThe departing chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, warned of efforts to tie the broadcast station license renewals to news content, as the agency dismissed a series of complaints brought from the left and the right.
She did not name incoming President Donald Trump, who has threatened networks over their news and other content, but she said in a statement that she wanted to “draw a bright line at a moment when clarity about government interference with the free press is needed more than ever. “The action we take makes clear two things.
First, the FCC should not be the President’s speech police. Second, the FCC should not be journalism’s censor-in-chief,” she said.
The dismissed complaints included three filed by the conservative Center for American Rights. A complaint against ABC’s Philadelphia affiliate, WPVI-TV, alleged bias in ABC’s hosting of the September presidential debate; a complaint against WCBS-TV in New York claimed “news distortion” in the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris; and a complaint WNBC-TV in New York alleged violations of the equal time rule when Saturday Night Live featured Harris in a cameo the weekend before the presidential election.
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