Gomez Blasts FCC 'Weaponization' While CAR Targets CBS DEI

The real targets of the FCC’s recent investigations of broadcast networks are locally licensed affiliate stations serving their communities, Gomez said in a news release Thursday. She visited CBS-owned WFOR-TV Miami on Wednesday as part of a series of stops to engage with broadcasters and analyze how the FCC affects communities, the release said. “Consumers shouldn’t be caught in the middle of partisan politics here in Washington,” Gomez said.

Stations like WFOR “are a valuable resource for seniors, veterans and residents to receive lifesaving information about emergency conditions and local alerts,” she said. “The FCC should not be in the business of controlling access to vital local information. Instead, we should focus on protecting and expanding the public’s ability to receive timely, accurate news without political interference.”

The Center for American Rights (CAR), meanwhile, called for additional investigation into broadcasters' diversity, equity and inclusion policies. CBS parent Paramount Global has a dedicated DEI website, DEI-focused executives and content policies, and an Inclusion Week, policies similar to those at Comcast and NBCUniversal that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called out in his recent letter announcing an FCC investigation, CAR said in an ex parte filing Wednesday (see 2502110063).

Broadcaster DEI policies can be contrary to the public interest, even when they don’t violate the law, CAR argued. “Having an executive responsible for ensuring DEI in broadcast programming may not transgress any legal boundaries,” but “to the extent that executive reshapes broadcast television content to promote programming that does not interest or serve the viewership, that policy is legal but may not be in the public interest.”

The FCC should consider whether broadcasters are producing content their audiences want when determining if they're acting in the public interest, CAR said. Consumers in markets such as Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Chicago “may desire more content that is patriotic, family-friendly, and faith-inspired,” but “a DEI executive in Los Angeles may provide those broadcast stations exclusively with content that is different from or even contrary to those consumer preferences.”

CAR conceded that the “normal answer in this situation is that the market should protect consumers” but that solution is failing in broadcasting, it said. Market forces aren’t sufficient because all three top networks “are 110% bought-in on the same DEI ideology,” and companies “in thrall” to a DEI or ESG (environmental, social, governance) agenda choose those policies over consumer demand.

“DEI policies that do not cross the threshold of formal illegality may nevertheless be incompatible with the public interest,” CAR said. The FCC should review Paramount in the same way it's assessing Comcast/NBCU and impose conditions on Skydance/Paramount that include “specific, concrete steps to address DEI practices that are illegal or contrary to the public interest and convenience.”

CAR's proposal that the FCC consider matters that aren't legal violations as contrary to the public interest isn't too different from existing FCC policies, a broadcast attorney told us. The agency blocked the Standard General/Tegna deal over concerns about job losses, retransmission consent and hedge fund involvement, the attorney pointed out, adding that even if the deal had resulted in all the harms the FCC raised, none of them would have been contrary to the law.

The FCC proceedings against NBC, CBS and ABC are each based on complaints filed by CAR. The investigations are a “weaponization of the FCC’s broadcast licensing authority” and are seen as “a retaliatory move against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable by the government,” Gomez's release said. That goes against both the Communications Act and First Amendment, she added.