FCC’s Brendan Carr plans to keep going after US media

While ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ returned to ABC last Tuesday, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has promised to continue his campaign against what he sees as liberal bias in broadcasts, writes Cecilia Kang from Washington

- Cecilia Kang

Before President Trump appointed him to the Federal Communications Commission in 2017, Mr Carr was looking for a way to break onto the national stage, two former agency officials said.

(NYT)

Critics have recently called Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, dangerous and a national censor.

His response? Bring it.

Since Jimmy Kimmel Live! was temporarily yanked from the airwaves after Mr Carr took issue with the ABC host's comments about the man accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the 46-year-old regulator has been emboldened in his battle to stop what he sees as liberal bias in broadcasts, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

Mr Carr has appeared on conservative radio talk shows and Fox News to defend his actions, saying local broadcasters were finally serving audiences tired of biased programming. He has suggested the FCC should investigate ABC's daytime talk show The View over its political content. He said he planned to continue the agency's work to empower local TV stations to reject the shows they disagree with.

Some of his rhetoric about ABC has softened a bit since, but his overall message has remained the same: He will not stop. “There are a lot of Democrats out there that are engaged in a campaign of projection and distortion,” he said at a conference last Monday. “They are completely misrepresenting the work of the FCC and what we've been doing.”

The FCC will continue with its Congressional mandate to ensure broadcast TV serves the public interest, he said, adding, “If people don’t like it, they can go to Congress and change the law.”