‘The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not,’ the FCC chair said.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr on March 14 threatened to revoke licenses of U.S. broadcasters, accusing them of publishing “fake news” amid the ongoing war with Iran.
Broadcasters that are running what Carr referred to as “news distortions” must now “correct course before their license renewals come up,” the FCC chairman wrote on social media.
“The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”
Carr’s remarks included a screenshot of a post President Donald Trump made on Truth Social earlier in the day, where he accused multiple U.S. media outlets of misleading coverage of the Iran war.
“The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (in particular), and other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War,” Trump said. “Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts!”
The FCC has regulatory authority over television and radio broadcasters and their licenses. The agency does not regulate cable or satellite TV networks, nor does it have authority over online content. News outlets that only publish online or through print distribution, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, are not subject to FCC authority.
While the agency has a policy against “news distortion” in local TV and radio broadcasts going back more than 50 years, for coverage to be deemed a distortion, it “must involve a significant event and not merely a minor or incidental aspect of the news report.” Broadcasters are only subject to this kind of enforcement when the FCC can prove they deliberately distorted a news report rather than “mere inaccuracy or difference of opinion.”
In the president’s post on Saturday, he accused the Journal of reporting that five U.S. tanker planes were struck and “destroyed” at an air base in Saudi Arabia.
In the report, it noted that the tankers were “damaged but not fully destroyed” and were in the process of being repaired.
Trump wrote that four of the five tankers had “virtually no damage, and are already back in service.”
“One had slightly more damage, but will be in the air shortly. None were destroyed, or close to that, as the Fake News said in headlines,” he added.
By Jacob Burg
