\n<\/p>\n
I<\/span>n just 14 months, Daniel Suhr, the 40-year-old president of a two-person, Chicago-based, conservative legal organization called the Center for American Rights, has emerged as a thorn in the side of the major US broadcast news networks at a time when they face both financial and political vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n Suhr has had a key ally in Brendan Carr, who was hand-picked by Donald Trump to serve as the chair of the powerful Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the Trump administration has sought new avenues to take on the mainstream media. Carr has resuscitated several complaints that were filed by Suhr and dismissed at the end of Joe Biden\u2019s administration and has seemingly factored in Suhr\u2019s suggestions when reviewing media mergers.<\/p>\n One of those complaints, in October 2024, dealt with the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then vice-president Kamala Harris. It preceded by about two weeks a $10bn lawsuit by Trump against CBS that made similar claims and upended the political-media world for the next nine months. Suhr\u2019s complaint led to CBS\u2019s unprecedented decision to release the full, unedited transcript and video library from the Harris interview under pressure from Carr. And when Carr\u2019s FCC ultimately approved Paramount\u2019s long-delayed merger with Skydance Media in July, it included conditions that Suhr had asked for: the appointment of an ombudsman to handle complaints of bias at CBS News and <\/strong>the elimination of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the commission did a great job in the final order,\u201d Suhr said in a recent sit-down with the Guardian. \u201cThe commission\u2019s order said that Paramount committed to news that was \u2018fair, unbiased, and fact-based.\u2019 I think those are great words. I would love to see all of our news be fair, unbiased and fact-based. I think that articulation of the standard is in many ways the fruition of what started with the one complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all a bit of a whirlwind for Suhr, who filed his first media complaint in September 2024. Critics of the way that Carr has used the commission\u2019s limited regulatory oversight over the content of television networks to exert pressure have some questions \u2013 and some concerns \u2013 about how Suhr suddenly became such a key player in the administration\u2019s regulatory apparatus, even as they say he\u2019s very pleasant to deal with.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you talk to him, he seems like a very reasonable, very articulate, smart guy,\u201d said Gigi Sohn, a longtime consumer advocate who was nominated by former president Joe Biden to serve on the FCC but did not ultimately do so. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of curious that this person has come out of nowhere and is so active and is so tied with the chair. I think it raises questions that should be answered.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those questions is whether Suhr is taking his cues directly from Carr, who shares his belief that the mainstream media is biased in favor of Democrats.<\/p>\n Over coffee recently in Washington DC, where Suhr had traveled to attend a dinner hosted by the conservative Federalist Society, he sought to explain how exactly his organization became a central actor in the conservative case against alleged bias in the media \u2013 and how he became what Sohn called \u201ca cog in the Carr wheel\u201d, though Suhr sees it differently.<\/p>\n While Suhr said he\u2019s a \u201cbig fan\u201d of Carr, he pushed back on the notion that he works hand-in-glove with him. \u201cI don\u2019t run my complaints by [Carr] ahead of time,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t run my complaints by his staff ahead of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s undeniable that Suhr \u201chas the ear of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on a number of policy issues,\u201d as former telecommunications association executive Ted Hearn wrote last week, noting that he had endorsed the $34.5bn merger between Charter Communications and Cox Communications.<\/p>\n Suhr said he has only met Carr once \u2013 though he did not disclose that his one meeting had occurred just hours before meeting with the Guardian for an interview. Carr posted a photo of the two of them on X, writing that Suhr is \u201cdoing fantastic work advancing the public interest in media policy\u201d. (Carr did not respond to a text message seeking further comment about Suhr.)<\/p>\n Asked about it later, Suhr explained the visit as just a \u201cget-to-know-you\u201d session \u2013 they didn\u2019t talk about pending cases, which means there won\u2019t be an official notice of their meeting \u2013 just a photo that Carr posted on X.<\/p>\n In late September 2024, Suhr filed a complaint against ABC over its handling of the presidential debate it hosted between Trump and Harris. There was also a complaint against NBC over a pre-election appearance by Harris on Saturday Night Live,which Suhr argued was a violation of the equal time rule.<\/p>\n Both complaints were closed at the end of Biden\u2019s term by then-FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel and then reopened by Carr \u2013 though the chair chose not to bring back a petition to deny a local Fox station a license because of the Fox News Channel\u2019s coverage of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dismissals by the FCC were so obviously correct under established precedent that I became a little curious about who would be dumb enough to file these things,\u201d said Robert Corn-Revere, a first amendment litigator for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, when asked how he first became aware of Suhr. \u201cThere is no reason whatsoever for these proceedings to still be open and there was never a basis for them to be open in the first place.\u201d (\u201c[Corn-Revere] is entitled to his opinion,\u201d Suhr responded. \u201cI think our results speak for themselves.\u201d)<\/p>\n When ABC indefinitely suspended late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s show on 17 September Suhr was all over that as well. Earlier that day, he had filed a complaint to the FCC seeking consequences for ABC unless Kimmel\u2019s show was taken off the air. That followed another complaint about two weeks earlier accusing Kimmel of using his show to benefit Democrats.<\/p>\n Critics wonder whether Carr is keeping the complaints open to serve as a potential pressure point for networks \u2013 like NBC owner Comcast \u2013 that might need the FCC\u2019s blessing for future transactions.<\/p>\n Despite their issues with Suhr\u2019s filings, which often allege violations of the FCC\u2019s poorly defined \u201cnews distortion\u201d standard, both Sohn and Corn-Revere acknowledged that there is nothing unusual about an outside organization filing motions that are aligned with an FCC chair\u2019s priorities. But, Corn-Revere said, \u201cI\u2019ve just never seen it to be this sort of open and obvious as is going on now.\u201d<\/p>\n While he\u2019s relatively new to taking on the media, Suhr is no stranger to politics. After graduating with a law degree in 2008, Suhr spent several years managing the Federalist Society\u2019s law school chapters before joining the administration of Scott Walker, the Republican former Wisconsin governor . He then became a public interest lawyer, working for an organization called the Liberty Justice Center before forming the Center for American Rights with his partner Patrick Hughes. It was Hughes, who leads CAR\u2019s board, who first suggested that Suhr should look into ways to combat what he saw as mainstream media misinformation after watching the ABC News-hosted presidential debate in September.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an unfair debate \u2013 the moderators were clearly in favor of the Democrats \u2013 and it made me think: \u2018How can this be?\u2019\u201d Hughes recalled. \u201cAnd so I said to Daniel: \u2018We\u2019ve got to do something about this. What are the standards under which the FCC regulates this?\u2019 Because it can\u2019t be right.\u201d<\/p>\n Hughes said he\u2019s been pleased with the impact that Suhr has been able to have. \u201cHe\u2019s brilliant,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s a terrific person and a fabulous lawyer and he\u2019s doing a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n Sohn agreed that Suhr has \u201cobviously been very successful\u201d in his efforts.<\/p>\n Suhr\u2019s complaint against CBS is still open, even though the relief sought \u2013 forcing the network to release the 60 Minutes transcript \u2013 was already granted months ago. When asked recently why the FCC has not acted on complaints, Carr said they are still being investigated.<\/p>\n Either way, Suhr is feeling better about CBS News these days, particularly after the selection of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief and the appointment of a prominent Washington conservative, Kenneth R Weinstein, as ombudsman.<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate the change that is happening. We applaud it. We\u2019re going to continue to be vigilant for consumers, but so far I\u2019ve been thrilled,\u201d Suhr said. \u201cWe just want journalists to be better journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In just 14 months, Daniel Suhr, the 40-year-old president of a two-person, Chicago-based, conservative legal organization called the Center for American Rights, has emerged as a thorn in the side of the major US broadcast news networks at a time when they face both financial and political vulnerabilities. Suhr has had a key ally in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[6696,2389,3333,6539,1811,205,529,278,150],"class_list":{"0":"post-34985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-causing","9":"tag-conservative","10":"tag-headaches","11":"tag-lawyer","12":"tag-major","13":"tag-media","14":"tag-meet","15":"tag-networks","16":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}