"The Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, admitted at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that there had been a political sea change and he no longer viewed the FCC as an independent agency. Commissioners, he says, serve at the pleasure of the president. In his case, that president is Donald Trump, whose face Carr wears as a lapel pin, whose agenda he loudly embraces, and who often publicly demands that Carr censor his critics, including revoking their broadcast licenses."
"Perhaps Carr believes in the unitary executive theory, under which agency heads essentially function like cabinet members. That's fine. We're not here to argue with him about administrative law. But he can't have it both ways. You're either an umpire calling balls and strikes or a political hack you can't be both. If Carr believes the FCC is subservient to the president, then he is the last person who should be claiming the power to regulate journalists' editorial decisions under the FCC's public interest standard."
Brendan Carr acknowledged at a Senate hearing that the FCC experienced a political shift and he no longer viewed it as independent, asserting commissioners serve at the president's pleasure. Carr aligns visibly with President Donald Trump and has pursued investigations and public criticisms targeting broadcasters whose content upset Trump. The agency removed references to its independence from its website. Carr's stance raises conflict concerns because he has authority to define the public interest and regulate journalists' editorial decisions. Data from the Press Freedom Tracker shows Carr's actions consistently involved content that angered Trump, prompting calls to repeal the public interest and news distortion rules.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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