Outgoing FCC Chair Dismisses Complaints Against TV Stations That ‘Seek to Weaponize’ Agency: ‘The FCC Should Not be the President’s Speech Police’

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In one of her final acts as head of the FCC, chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel ordered the agency to reject four complaints and petitions against local TV stations — which she says represent politically motivated efforts “to curtail freedom of the press and undermine the First Amendment.” “Today, I have directed the FCC to take a stand on behalf of the First Amendment.

We draw a bright line at a moment when clarity about government interference with the free press is needed more than ever,” she said in a statement. “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.” Rosenworcel, a Democrat, is set to step down as head of the FCC with President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan.

20 inauguration. Trump has picked Brendan Carr, the senior Republican commissioner at the FCC, as the agency’s new chairman, calling him “a warrior for Free Speech” who has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy.” Rosenworcel called out Trump in her statement about dismissing the four TV station complaints.