FCC's sole Democrat urges broadcasters to confront 'censorship and control campaign'

Anna Gomez, the sole Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission, urged the US broadcast industry on Friday to confront the Trump administration’s actions toward major networks and stations more aggressively. In a letter dated Thursday to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), she called on the trade group to speak out against “a coordinated effort to turn licensing authority into leverage over election-year coverage,” Reuters reported.

“This administration is running a coordinated, government-wide effort to reshape the media into its sanctioned messenger,” Gomez said, accusing FCC chair Brendan Carr of pressuring networks not to run polls the administration dislikes — something she said was not proper.

It follows Carr’s warning this week that networks could breach their regulatory obligations by airing “entirely fake polls” before the November 3 election. In April he ordered an unprecedented early license review for all eight Disney-owned ABC television stations.

Gomez wrote that every station covering the midterms “needs to understand what the law actually requires before that threat has its intended chilling effect”, arguing that without documented evidence of an intentional effort to mislead, “this commission has no authority to act.”

She said the NAB had been “largely quiet through the first year of this censorship and control campaign”, but not “completely silent” — and that an industry under such pressure “needs more than a couple of tempered statements.”

NAB president Curtis LeGeyt said the group appreciated Gomez’s “recognition of the value of local broadcasters and her commitment to the First Amendment principles that underpin a free press”. Carr’s spokesperson did not immediately comment.

Sources: Reuters via KSEV · Bloomberg Law · Deadline (letter text)