It is clear that the FCC is not an independent agency, but an instrument of the president’s political agenda
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.
Seth Stern is the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer. Clayton Weimers is the executive director of RSF USA, the North American branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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