AAF: Congress Should Kill FCC Content Rules After Trump License Threats
Congress should remove the FCC's authority to impose content-based restrictions such as the broadcast indecency rules on broadcasters in the wake of Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump's repeated calls for action against ABC's license (see [Ref:2409120056), said American Action Forum…
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Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling in a post Tuesday. “While many were quick to dismiss Trump's call, it is indeed possible for the federal government to revoke a broadcast license, even in response to what is essentially a political offense,” Westling said. He said Congress should do away with the news distortion rules and indecency rules, which remain on the books but are used infrequently. The news distortion rules bar broadcasters from deliberately distorting a factual news report, while the indecency rules bar egregious nudity or profanity. The FCC hypothetically could use the news distortion rules to block a license renewal for a station that aired a story the president disapproved of, Westling said. Elimination of the rules would give broadcasters more freedom and allow them to better compete with other media that aren't bound by such rules, he said. “The freedom to succeed would also entail the freedom to fail: If a station airs content that consumers do not want to see, it will simply go out of business,” he said.