Brendan Carr wastes no time laying out his vision for the Federal Communications Commission. After the 12-year veteran of the agency was selected by President-elect Trump to lead the Commission, Carr says he will be focused on not only what broadcasters are doing on-air, but also where FCC resources are going.
“Democrats have been in charge of the administrative state — the alphabet soup of agencies in D.C. — for at least 12 of the last 16 years. Over those 12 years, government control has increased and your freedoms have decreased. It is time to flip the script in Washington,” Carr said Monday in a post on X.
Trump has been critical of some media outlets’ coverage, calling on licenses to be revoked in some cases. Carr is indicating he is sympathetic to those complaints. But in a social media post, Carr stopped short of saying he would pursue license revocations.
“Broadcast media have had the privilege of using a scarce and valuable public resource — our airwaves. In turn, they are required by law to operate in the public interest,” Carr wrote. “When the transition is complete, the FCC will enforce this public interest obligation.”
However, big tech companies will likely be a bigger target for Carr, who says the FCC “must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.” He has said companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft play “central roles in the censorship cartel” and has said the misinformation monitoring firm NewsGuard has helped to enforce “one-sided narratives.”
An immediate target will be the FCC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The agency’s most recent budget requests to Congress said that promoting DEI was the agency’s second-highest strategic goal. Carr says that will no longer be the case when he is in charge. “Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI,” he wrote on social media.
Project 2025 Author
Carr has been increasingly vocal about his conservative views during the past few years, and he helped draft the Project 2025 blueprint focused on the FCC. It calls for dramatic changes to the Commission. He writes that the FCC “needs to change course” and bring “new urgency” to issues surrounding “reining in” Big Tech. The document says nowhere is that clearer “than when it comes to Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” Carr writes that the FCC should require more transparency from Big Tech, which today he says is “a black box.”
The National Association of Broadcasters has been supportive of Carr’s efforts at “holding Big Tech accountable” and “supporting policies that will allow local broadcast stations to better compete with these behemoths.” NAB President Curtis LeGeyt says he is excited about the prospects to “level the playing field.”
‘Wrong Way On Media’
An indication of Carr’s views on media ownership has come during his tenure as a commissioner, as he has not only supported scaling back several regulations but also permitting broadcasters to own more stations.
“We’re heading the wrong way in media regulation,” Carr said at a media symposium in July. “The FCC approach to media in general is very outdated,” he said. He is worried the FCC is making the same mistake with broadcasting as it did with newspapers. “We’re really at a break-glass moment. We need to look very closely at how we incentivize more investment,” Carr said.
An early indication of his plans for media ownership will be whether the FCC drops its defense to a legal challenge of its most recent quadrennial media ownership proceeding.
Democrats Look For Common Ground
Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who will become the lead Democrat on the FCC with the impending exit of current Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, says he has had a good working relationship with Carr, and he expects that to continue.
“Most importantly, we have worked together on numerous bipartisan priorities, including national security, connectivity, and media policy, and I look forward to continuing that important work,” Starks says.
Public advocate Gigi Sohn, whose own nomination to the FCC was derailed last year, is also hopeful. “We may not agree on everything (or much of anything!), but he is highly qualified and a good guy,” she wrote on X.
However, some outside groups are less optimistic. Free Press co-CEO Craig Aaron says Carr has been “campaigning” for the chairmanship. “He supports media mergers and will give Trump’s cronies control of even more TV and radio stations,” says Aaron. He also thinks Carr’s refusal to stand up to calls to take away broadcast licenses for fact-checking Trump “should be disqualifying.”