FCC reopens complaints against top broadcasters

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reopening a number of complaints against broadcast outlets that were dismissed by the previous administration just days before President Trump took office this week.

The agency said it would again consider a slew of cases against CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and Fox Corp., which former Chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed last week on the grounds that doing so was necessary to protect the First Amendment.

In each of the cases, the department wrote the previous rulings to dismiss were “issued prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record for the station specific conduct at issue.”

The reversals come as Trump’s pick to lead the FCC, Brendan Carr, has spoken about his desire to see the agency fight what he has called “this censorship cartel.”

The complaint against CBS is in connection with a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris and how it was edited. NBC is also at the center of a complaint centered on an equal-time debate between Harris and Trump stemming from her appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

The third complaint, against ABC, knocks the network over how it conducted a presidential debate between Trump and Harris.

Lastly, a former Fox executive had argued before the FCC that a Fox-owned television station should lose its broadcast license over its coverage of the 2020 election.

Rosenworcel, in her order dismissing the cases, wrote that “the facts and legal circumstances in each of these cases are different, but what they share is that they seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment.”