FCC Bureaus Reject Complaints Against All Four Networks
The FCC denied four challenges against broadcast stations at the bureau level in what outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said is “a stand on behalf of the First Amendment.” In two orders and two letters, the agency rejected three complaints from…
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the Center for American Rights against stations owned by CBS, ABC and NBC, and a third against a Fox-owned station from the Media and Democracy Project. The Center for American Rights complaints accused NBC of violating the FCC’s equal opportunity rules with a Saturday Night Live appearance by Vice President Kamala Harris, CBS of violating the news distortion rules by editing an interview with Harris, and ABC for its moderation of a presidential debate between Harris and President-Elect Donald Trump. The MAD filing called for the FCC to hold a hearing on Fox’s fitness to hold FCC licenses in the wake of a 2023 Superior Court of Delaware ruling on a motion for summary judgment in Dominion Voting System’s defamation case against Fox over its 2020 election reporting. The CBS and ABC complaints were rejected by the Enforcement Bureau, the Fox and NBC filings by the Media Bureau. “The action we take makes clear two things,” said Rosenworcel in a released statement. “First, the FCC should not be the President’s speech police. Second, the FCC should not be journalism’s censor-in-chief.” Incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr has indicated support for the CAR filings.