The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday dismissed complaints about how ABC News moderated the televised campaign debate between President Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearances on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
In a statement, outgoing FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the commission was rejecting complaints that “seek to weaponize the FCC’s licensing authority in a manner that is fundamentally inconsistent with the First Amendment.”
In September, Trump asked the FCC to revoke licenses for Walt Disney-owned ABC because of the network’s moderator of the Sept. 10 presidential debate.
In October, Trump filed a lawsuit against Paramount-owned CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with Harris that he called “fraudulent” and asked the commission to compel the broadcaster to release a transcript.
Trump, who won the Nov. 5 election, will be inaugurated on Monday for his second term in office.
The FCC rejected a complaint by the Center for American Rights that the “60 Minutes” interview was distorted, saying the nonprofit group failed to provide sufficient evidence that the broadcast engaged in “a willful and deliberate falsification of the news.”
CBS has said that Trump pulled out of his scheduled interview with “60 Minutes.”
Rosenworcel said Trump was a threat to the First Amendment to call on the FCC to revoke licenses for broadcast television stations because he disagrees with their content and coverage.
“The FCC should not be the president’s speech police,” Rosenworcel said.
The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.
Trump’s pick to head the FCC, Brendan Carr, criticized Comcast-owned NBC for allowing Harris to appear on Saturday Night Live shortly before the election. The FCC noted that NBC made available the equivalent time and audience for Trump during the two sporting events.
The Trump transition team and Carr did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Carr told reporters in November that the FCC will review all relevant issues, such as whether broadcasters are meeting their obligation to act in the public interest.
In 2017, then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by Trump, dropped his suggestion that the FCC could challenge NBC’s license after it published stories that Trump said were false.
Rosenworcel also said the agency had rejected a petition not to renew the license of a Philadelphia Fox television station.
An advocacy group asked the FCC in 2023 to deny a license renewal for WTXF-TV, complaining that its parent Fox, which also owns Fox News, had broadcast “false information about election fraud” about the presidential election. of 2020. The group, the Media and Democracy Project, said Thursday it plans to appeal the decision.
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