WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bipartisan coalition of seven former FCC chairs and commissioners, including five Republicans, and senior staff has filed a formal petition calling on the Carr Commission to rescind its news distortion policy.
Their reason? It is an outdated rule that has increasingly been weaponized to chill press freedom and silence critical journalism.
The “petition for special relief,” submitted Thursday upon the reopening of the federal government and restoration of full FCC.gov access, comes courtesy of Andrew C. Barrett, Rachelle B. Chong, Ervin S. Duggan, Mark S. Fowler, Dennis R. Patrick, Alfred C. Sikes, Thomas E. Wheeler, Christopher J. Wright, Kathryn C. Brown, Jerald N. Fritz and Peter Pitsch — individuals who in the recent past have held high-profile roles at the Commission.
They are represented by the Protect Democracy Project, G Squared Strategies’ Gigi Sohn — the failed Democratic nominee to serve as a FCC Commissioner under President Biden, Rachel Goodman, Andrew Jay Schwartzman and Berin Szóka of Tech Freedom.
The basis of their petition that the FCC repeal the news distortion policy in full is based on the Supreme Court’s First Amendment application in Moody v NetChoice LLC, a case the petitioners’ counsel says reaffirmed that the U.S. government has no role in “un-biasing” the media.
“In direct contradiction to that decision, the news distortion policy seeks to mold the speech of private broadcasters to the FCC’s own view of what is correct, complete, and accurate news,” the petition reads. “The First Amendment forbids the government from embarking on such a project.”
Furthermore, the petitioners’ counsel say, the application of the news distortion policy is constitutionally problematic. “The vast scope and vague language of the news distortion policy cast an omnipresent shadow over broadcasters’ freedom of expression while leaving the policy open to partisan weaponization. Wielding the news distortion policy, the FCC has already opened or threatened to open investigations against private broadcasters due to disagreements with editorial decisions or statements made in a comedic monologue. Even if the FCC never tries to take enforcement action in these cases, the specter of government interference alone chills broadcasters’ speech and suppresses their message.”
And, they state, “because the FCC has no legitimate interest in correcting or punishing what it considers to be slanted news coverage, the news distortion policy lacks a meaningful function. Over a period of 60 years, the FCC only enforced the policy eight times, typically in cases involving an intentional hoax. However, such cases are now covered by the FCC’s broadcast hoax role, rendering the news distortion policy a vestigial organ. In light of its redundancy and obsolescence, as well as its actively harmful effects, amply demonstrated as of late, the petitioners respectfully request the repeal of the news distortion policy.”
The filing comes in response to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s recent invocation of the policy to investigate ABC and parent The Walt Disney Co. for airing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s inaccurate commentary about Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer.
Created in 1949, the News Distortion Policy gives the Commission the power to investigate and punish broadcasters for allegedly “distorting” the news.
GOMEZ CHIMES IN, IN SOLIDARITY
With the petition’s filing, Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gómez released a statement that largely reiterated her previous sentiments regarding what she calls the FCC’s improper use of the News Distortion policy.
“The FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to go after broadcasters for their news content,” she said. “The Communications Act forbids the Commission from censoring broadcasters, and the First Amendment protects journalistic choices from government intimidation. Nevertheless, this FCC has deployed a vague and ineffective News Distortion policy as a weapon to stretch its licensing authority and pressure newsrooms. The First Amendment is a pillar of our democracy. As federal regulators, we must respect the rule of law, uphold the Constitution, and ensure that a free press is never subjected to regulatory interference by the FCC.”
— With reporting by Adam R Jacobson, in Long Island City, N.Y.
“The filing comes in response to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s recent invocation of the policy to investigate ABC and parent The Walt Disney Co. for airing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s inaccurate commentary about Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer.”
(suggestion: a more objective version of this part of this article (specifically one without the word “inaccurate”))
“The filing comes in response to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s recent invocation of the policy to investigate ABC and parent The Walt Disney Co. for airing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s false and derogatory commentary about Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer.”
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