MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Multiple U.S. senators are accusing the nation's top broadcast regulator of censorship. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has investigated and criticized major news networks. He's threatened to revoke local station licenses. He's taken issue with a late-night comedian - all over issues dear to conservatives and especially President Trump. In a hearing in the Senate, NPR's David Folkenflik reports Brendan Carr appeared undeterred and unrepentant.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, framed the issue like this.
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GARY PETERS: Do you think the FCC should protect free speech?
BRENDAN CARR: Yes.
PETERS: OK.
FOLKENFLIK: But Carr said his investigations and his threats to take away broadcast licenses aren't violating that.
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CARR: The Supreme Court has expressly said there is no First Amendment right to an FCC license.
FOLKENFLIK: Carr is applying something called the public interest standard in a new way.
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CARR: The Supreme Court has said that the FCC enforcing the public interest standard on licensees is not a violation of the First Amendment...
PETERS: And...
CARR: ...Or censorship.
FOLKENFLIK: Historically, the standard compelled stations to serving their local audiences and to reflecting an array of viewpoints. Senator Peters noted that Carr had warned ABC and local stations that run its programs that they should pull Jimmy Kimmel's show over his remarks about Trump supporters following Charlie Kirk's killing. Hours later, two major local station groups and ABC's corporate parent - that's The Walt Disney Company - did just that, suspending Kimmel. Here's Peters.
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PETERS: And you get to determine what is the public interest. So if the president is offended, you think, wow, that's the public interest. No one should ever offend a president. That seems to be counter to our whole history in this country.
FOLKENFLIK: The critique from Democrats had some support, if more gently expressed, from Texas Republican Ted Cruz. He's chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
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TED CRUZ: Jimmy Kimmel is angry, overtly partisan and profoundly unfunny.
FOLKENFLIK: Cruz said ABC and the stations were well within their rights to decide independently to pull Kimmel's show.
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CRUZ: But what government cannot do is force private entities to take actions that the government cannot take directly. Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills protected speech.
FOLKENFLIK: Cruz joined Carr in pointing out Democrats who had called for an FCC investigation of a conservative broadcast company in 2018. But the Texan told Carr, as well as his Senate colleagues, that the FCC should show restraint, whether the person in the Oval Office is a Democrat or a Republican.
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
MARTIN: And I'll note here that Disney is a financial supporter of NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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