Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said on Wednesday that the FCC is not an independent agency despite its own website stating otherwise.
“The FCC is not an independent agency, formally speaking,” Carr told Democrat Sen. Ben Ray Luján asked during an oversight hearing when asked about how the agency is defined on its website.
Asked if the website was lying, Carr said, “Possibly.” Luján told him he should fix it.
Less than an hour later, the FCC’s website had been updated to remove the word “independent” from its mission statement, Axios’ Sara Fischer reported.
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While the 1934 law creating the FCC does not use the word “independent” to define it, the FCC was designed to operate autonomously and independently from the executive branch. Its independence is meant to shield the agency, which regulates broadcast television, from partisan interference. But under Carr’s leadership during President Donald Trump’s second term, the FCC has specifically targeted perceived political enemies of the president.
In September, Carr threatened ABC over comments late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel made after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder. Kimmel was briefly pulled off the air afterward.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz — who led Wednesday’s hearing as chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation — was one of a handful of conservatives who expressed concern that the move equated to stifling speech.
“Jimmy Kimmel is angry, overtly partisan, and profoundly unfunny,” Cruz said during the hearing. “But what government cannot do is force private entities to take actions that the government cannot take directly. Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills free speech.”
Carr faced questions in this vein from Cruz and others. But in an exchange with Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Carr doubled down on the pressure he has placed on news organizations.
“Any licensee that operates on the public airwaves has a responsibility to comply with the public interest standard,” Carr said.
The FCC’s independence has eroded significantly under Carr. On multiple occasions, Trump has threatened news outlets with having their licenses pulled. Carr demurred when asked if he had discussed with the White House using the FCC to penalize critics.
“I don’t get into the specifics of conversations that I have,” he said.
Carr has initiated investigations into ABC and Disney over diversity, equity and inclusion policies as well as one into CBS over its preelection “60 Minutes” interview of the then-Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris. CBS settled a lawsuit with Trump, agreeing to pay $16 million.
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