The president of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS in a movement that the Democrats described as an attempt to intimidate the media.
“I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC control office to open an investigation into the transmission of NPR and PBS programming in its member transmission stations,” Carr wrote in a letter Yesterday to the leaders of NPR and PBS.
Carr claimed that NPR and PBS are violating a federal law that prohibits the non -commercial educational transmission stations for the execution of commercial advertisements. “I worry that NPR and PBS transmissions can violate federal law by transmitting commercials,” Carr wrote. “In particular, it is possible that the member stations of NPR and PBS transmit subscription ads that cross the line in prohibited commercial ads.”
Carr’s letter did not provide specific examples of subscription advertisements that could violate the law, but said that “the ads should not promote taxpayer’s products, services or businesses, and that they cannot contain comparative or qualitative descriptions, price information, prices information, calls to action, or incentives to buy, sell, rent or lease. “
Carr: Defund NPR and PBS
Carr said that the NPR and PBS members transmission stations have a FCC license. He also declared his opposition to government financing for NPR and PBS, although he acknowledged that it is not up to the FCC. Carr wrote:
For your conscience, I will provide a copy of this letter to the relevant members of the Congress because I believe that this FCC investigation can be relevant to a ongoing legislative debate. In particular, Congress is actively considering whether taxpayers subsidize NPR and PBS programming. For my part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending dollars from taxpayers to NPR and PBS given changes in the media market since the approval of the Public Radiodice Law of 1967.
To the extent that these taxpayers dollars are being used to support a profit effort or an entity that transmits commercial ads, which would then undermine any case to continue financing NPR and PBS with taxpayers dollars.
The Democratic commissioners of the FCC, Anna Gómez and Geoffrey Starks, issued statements that denounce the investigation. “This seems to be another administration effort to arm the power of the FCC. The FCC has no intimidating business and silencers of the transmission media.” Gomez said.