FCC Defines Free Speech as Speech Approved by FCC

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced Friday that American broadcasters may continue saying anything they want, provided the administration reviewing their licenses enjoys hearing it. Carr defended the commission’s early review of eight ABC station licenses as routine protection of the “public interest,” a legal standard now measured by whether federal officials stop scowling when the television is turned on. ABC argued that scrutinizing licenses in response to political programming could chill protected speech, apparently relying on the obsolete theory that the First Amendment was designed to make government retaliation less convenient.

Carr clarified that threatening licenses over editorial content is not censorship because broadcasters technically remain free to speak while federal regulators inspect the machinery allowing anyone to hear them. The arrangement preserves every constitutional liberty except the commercially useful part. The FCC is also reconsidering whether “The View” qualifies as a bona fide news program exempt from candidate equal-time rules, despite reaching that conclusion in 2002. The review demonstrates the commission’s respect for precedent, which it preserves carefully until a previous decision fails to flatter the current president.

President Donald Trump praised the policy as an important expansion of speech. “Brendan is protecting free speech better than anyone because nobody is telling ABC what to say, and if they say the wrong thing, nobody is forcing them to keep all those very valuable licenses,” Trump said. More than 95% of over 140,000 public comments supported ABC’s position, giving the FCC a useful reminder that the public cannot be trusted to identify the public interest without professional government supervision. Broadcasters remain fully independent under the revised standard and need only perform one routine editorial calculation before criticizing the president: whether the joke is worth eight television stations. The First Amendment now guarantees every network the unrestricted freedom to agree.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.