The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday refiled three complaints against NBC, ABC and CBS after conservative groups alleged they displayed bias against incumbent President Donald Trump on multiple occasions during the election season.
The three complaints were initially filed by a conservative nonprofit called the Center for American Rights. One person accused ABC News of bias against former Vice President Kamala Harris, who fact-checked Trump during the presidential debate. Another claimed NBC violated same-time rules when Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” A third accused CBS of deceptively editing Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview.
CBS defended its ’60 Minutes’ sit-down with Harris and denied it was edited to be misleading. NBC filed a uniform time notice with the FCC to modify Harris’ broadcast time, and the network later gave Trump two minutes of free airtime. And ABC rejected claims that the network gave Harris an unfair advantage.
Joe Biden’s FCC chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, dismissed the complaint last week, Biden’s final day in office. She said at the time that the filing sought to “weaponize the FCC’s licensing authority in a way that is fundamentally inconsistent with the First Amendment.”
But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican and Project 2025 contributor who was selected by President Trump to take over the agency this week, reversed that decision.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File
Daniel Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights, told “I’m glad to know that it doesn’t,” he wrote.
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A fourth FCC complaint against Fox-owned television stations that Rosenworcel dismissed was not revived. The complaint claims the station should be stripped of its license for promoting lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.
Carr criticized Harris’ ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance after it occurred. He claimed at the time that the surprise skit, just days before the November election, was a “clear and blatant effort” by the Harris campaign to circumvent the FCC’s equal-time rules that force networks to give equal airtime to political candidates. .
“The purpose of this rule is precisely to prevent biased and partisan conduct, including by licensed broadcasters, who use the airwaves to influence one candidate on the eve of an election,” he wrote.
