FCC chairman warns about ABC's decision not to carry Trump's speech

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said that he expected that ABC’s decision not to carry President Donald Trump’s speech last week to be part of the agency’s early review of its broadcast licenses.

During the speech itself, Trump said that ABC and NBC, which did not carry the address, should lose their broadcast licenses. They did telecast the speech on their streaming channels.

“I think when you have the president of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that’s something that broadcasters should be carrying. And so, obviously, this is an issue,” Carr told reporters on Wednesday. “There have been lots of concerns raised, including by members of Congress, about whether broadcasters and their decisions there comply with the public interest.”

The FCC does not license broadcast networks. It does license their affiliated stations, including those that the networks own.

The FCC already has ordered an early review of ABC broadcast station licenses for eight outlets, citing an investigation into its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. But the review looks into public comments on whether broadcasters have met their public interest obligations more generally. No such early review has been ordered yet for NBC.

Carr pointed to the FCC’s current proceeding on the early renewal of ABC-owned broadcast station licenses.

“I’m sure that there are going to be points raised in that proceeding that relate to Disney’s decision” not to carry the speech. “Again, we’re going to hold all broadcasters to the public interest obligations, and we’re always looking to make sure they do exactly that.”

The network has objected to the FCC’s order that it submit its licenses for early renewal, calling it “an extraordinary demonstration of power and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America.”

The networks declined to carry certain speeches by Trump’s predecessors, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, even after time was requested by the White House. The topic of Trump’s speech — election security — raised concerns that it would be overly political and that he would repeat unfounded stolen election claims.

Carr also cited a report that “one or more of the networks have been in communication with … Democrat[ic] aides about their decision not to carry the president’s remarks.”

A spokesperson for ABC did not immediately return a request for comment.

A spokesperson for NBC did not have an immediate comment. The network also did a broadcast special report on the speech and offered the streaming feed to affiliates to take live if they wanted. Sinclair-owned network affiliated stations did that evening.

Commissioner Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, said that the agency “has no authority to punish broadcasters for exercising their First Amendment right to choose what is newsworthy. They made these decisions under presidents of both parties without any complaints, and in this case, the remarks were freely available online to anyone who wanted to watch them.”

She added that the “vague public interest standard is being used just ti punish speech this administration doesn’t like, and to reward speech that it does like, and that’s inappropriate, and it is contrary to the law and the Constitution.”