Brendan Carr, the Trump-aligned chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has accused Disney of running a “campaign of misinformation” as the media group defends itself against investigations the regulator has initiated.
Disney-owned ABC launched a public awareness campaign earlier this week to encourage viewers to back the network as it faces two separate investigations before the US media regulator.
Since ABC began running advertisements encouraging viewers to file public comments, the FCC has received more than 51,000 submissions on its investigation into whether the daytime talk show The View violated equal time provisions around political candidates appearing on programs.
There have also been nearly 40,000 submissions regarding the commission’s broader investigation into whether ABC should be able to renew its licenses for the eight local television stations it owns around the country. The outcome of that license renewal process, which could take more than a year, is extremely crucial for the future of the network.
Carr said that Disney “is running a fairly standard, off-the-shelf PR strategy” and is seeking to litigate the case in the media. Taking it one step further, Carr said: “I do think that Disney is running a campaign of misinformation here, I think in a lot of ways.”
He specifically called out ABC for saying in its advertisement raising awareness about The View investigation that “the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show.” “Our position is that we are enforcing the provisions of the Communications Act that Congress has passed,” he said. “We’re going to apply the law. Again, we have not made a decision one way or the other. We’re open-minded. We’ll see what they say.”
Asked whether the FCC would factor in the overwhelming proportion of comments that are defending ABC when making decisions about the network, Carr said: “We have our ways of combing through the comments and we evaluate the merits of what people are saying. We look at the facts and the arguments that are being presented. This is what we do day in and day out. Maybe it’s more comments than we normally get, but it’s not entirely unprecedented when you get issues that break above the media noise floor.”
Some telecom experts critical of Carr have said the license renewal process could ultimately take years, leaving the network in limbo. Asked by the Guardian about those concerns, Carr said it’s too early to say how long it could go.
“It’s not been decided at the FCC yet whether to renew the licenses, or whether we can’t make a finding to renew and therefore you set it for hearing through a hearing designation order,” he said. “Again, at this point, all options remain on the table and it can be dictated by the facts and the law, and we just got to go forward. If it’s short, great. If it’s long, great. But we got to apply the Communications Act and the provisions.”
Anna M Gomez, the lone Democrat-appointed FCC commissioner, reiterated her belief that Carr is using investigations and the license renewal process to put editorial pressure on ABC to go soft on the Trump administration, and not out of concern about whether Disney is discriminating against employees based on their race and gender, the rationale the chairman has given.
“It is so clear that this early license renewal is being done to pressure Disney,” she said. “This is all designed to pressure Disney to cave.”
Gomez also expressed doubt about whether public comments supporting ABC would factor into the FCC’s decision-making.
“Let’s not pretend that the public’s opinion will have an impact on the outcome,” she said. “I suspect this FCC will cherry-pick the submissions of partisan organizations to support its goal of silencing critics.”
