By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-18 21:51:40 | Updated at 2024-11-19 00:33:30
2 hours ago
Donald Trump's pick to head the Federal Communications Commission slammed Saturday Night Live for featuring Kamala Harris and has warned TV networks to be careful of 'bias.'
Brendan Carr, who is the top Republican on the independent commission that oversees radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the U.S., also has often targeted Big Tech, accusing them of censorship.
Trump called his pick a 'warrior for Free Speech.' Carr has embraced Trump's positions on social media, tech and television companies.
'Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held back our Economy,' Trump said in a statement.
'He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.'
Trump originally nominated Carr to the FCC in 2017 during his first term in office.
Brendan Carr was originally nominated to the FCC by Trump in 2017
Carr made headlines two days before the election when he claimed that Harris' appearance on Saturday Night Live violated the 'equal time' rule.
'This has all the appearances of, at least some leadership at NBC, at SNL, making clear that they wanted to weigh-in in favor of one candidate before the election,' Carr said then.
'NBC has structured this in a way that's plainly designed to evade the FCC's rules,' Carr said. 'We're talking 50 hours before Election Day starts, without any notice to other candidates, as far as I can tell.'
Carr has also backed Trump's call for licenses to be stripped from all three major broadcast networks for coverage choices that he has denounced.
NBC later informed the FCC that Harris had appeared on SNL 'without charge' for one minute and 30 seconds. That triggered the window for other campaigns to request time from network.
On that Sunday, NBC gave the Trump campaign time during its NASCAR and Sunday Night Football coverage in response to Harris' SNL appearance.
Broadcast networks are not licensed by the federal government. Individual stations are. But the big three networks – NBC, ABC and CBS – own 80 stations among them. Each station is a profit center, and a pressure point, for the networks.
Carr could drastically reshape the independent agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it as a political weapon for the right, analysts told The New York Times.
They predicted Carr would test the legal limits of the agency’s power by pushing to oversee companies like Meta and Google, setting up a fierce battle with Silicon Valley.
Carr also wrote the FCC section of Project 2025, the agenda that the conservative Heritage Foundation sketched out for a second Trump term.
In it, Carr argued that the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
Trump disavowed Project 2025 during the campaign.
Donald Trump has criticized broadcast networks and social media
David Carr at the first day of the Republican National Convention in July
Earlier this month, Carr attacked Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft in a posting on X for playing 'central roles in the censorship cartel,' which he said 'must be dismantled.' Billionaire Elon Musk — who owns X, advises Trump and backed Carr for FCC chairmanship — reposted his claims and announcement.
Carr has backed federal legislation that would punish social media companies that block or suspend users for their 'viewpoints,' an allegation that Musk and other conservatives have lodged against the tech giants.
Carr also supported a law passed by Congress to ban TikTok.
He graduated from Georgetown University and earned his law degree from the Catholic University of America.
He joined the FCC as a staffer in 2012. After working as the agency's general counsel, he was nominated to serve as a commissioner by Trump — and was again nominated by President Joe Biden.
The FCC has five members and regulates the telecommunications industry.
