appears poised to grant<\/a> the president far greater control over traditionally independent government agencies. The case before the court stems from Trump\u2019s firing of Federal Trade commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.<\/p>\nTraditionally, the independence of federal agencies was seen as a way to insulate their employees from political pressure and allow them to do their work impartially. The FCC was created in 1934 by an act of Congress and given regulatory jurisdiction over radio and telecommunications.<\/p>\n
The modern incarnation of the FCC does not regulate streaming platforms such as Netflix and YouTube, limiting the chairman\u2019s influence over what Americans see on their screens.<\/p>\n
The question of the FCC\u2019s independence from the White House has loomed over Carr, who was appointed to head the agency at the start of the president\u2019s second term after previously serving as one of its commissioners.<\/p>\n
Carr, whose office regulates the broadcast television industry, faced bipartisan criticism after he denounced ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s comments about the political motivations of the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk. <\/p>\n
In a podcast interview, Carr seemed to threaten ABC\u2019s broadcast license, saying in part: \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of Carr\u2019s comments, Nexstar and Sinclair \u2014 two major owners of ABC affiliate stations \u2014 pulled Kimmel\u2019s show, and ABC briefly suspended him. \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d has since returned to the airwaves, and the comedian has signed a one-year extension with ABC.<\/p>\n
Carr faced several questions about the Kimmel controversy during his testimony Wednesday. He said that he believes political satire should be considered protected speech, but that broadcasters licensed by the government must comply with a \u201cpublic interest standard\u201d mandated by Congress. <\/p>\n
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., asked Carr whether he believes Trump is his \u201cboss.\u201d Carr did not directly respond to that line of questioning, but he told Kim that Trump has the power to fire him and the FCC\u2019s two other sitting commissioners.<\/p>\n
Kim asked: \u201cWould it be appropriate for the president or senior administration officials to give you direction to pressure media companies?\u201d<\/p>\n
Carr replied: \u201cSorry, I\u2019m not going to get into hypotheticals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carr, 46, known for wearing a gold-colored pin modeled on Trump\u2019s profile, practiced law before he joined the FCC in 2012 as a staff attorney. He later was an adviser to then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. <\/p>\n
Trump appointed Carr to a Republican seat on the commission in 2017, during his first term, before elevating him to the top job. <\/p>\n
In the intervening years, Carr had raised his profile inside the Republican Party and the wider conservative ecosystem. He wrote a chapter about the FCC for the Heritage Foundation\u2019s \u201cMandate for Leadership\u201d policy document \u2014 better known as Project 2025. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe FCC should promote freedom of speech,\u201d Carr wrote in the opening to his chapter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, testifying Wednesday before a Senate committee, said the regulatory body is not an independent government agency \u2014 a position that counters his previous public statements and the office\u2019s own website. In an exchange with Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., Carr said the FCC is \u201cnot formally an independent agency\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}