As American Enterprise Institute Nonresident Senior Fellow Mark Jamison noted in an opinion piece penned in April, “[f]or decades, well-functioning independent regulatory agencies have been a stabilizing force.”
Though primarily addressing the Federal Trade Commission following President Donald Trump’s firing of two Democratic commissioners, Jamison highlighted four “core principles of stability, predictability, legitimacy, and credibility” for the FTC’s success that also could apply to another independent agency, the FCC.
Unfortunately, as Clay Calvert writes in this follow-up column, “the predictability that exists at the FCC under Republican Chairman Brendan Carr’s leadership is that most Democrats (and some Republicans) will view many of its prominent investigations as blatantly partisan efforts to aid Trump and attack press freedom. This perception erodes the FCC’s legitimacy and credibility.”
