FCC Commissioner Urges Broadcasters to Resist Trump Administration Pressure Ahead of Midterms

Anna Gomez, the sole Democratic member of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has urged the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to intensify its efforts against pressure from US President Donald Trump's administration. The pressure targets major news networks and broadcast television stations in the lead-up to the midterm elections on November 3.

In a four-page letter addressed to NAB CEO and President Curtis LeGeyt on Thursday, Gomez stated, “I would not be doing my job if I did not say plainly that the volume of that response has not yet matched the scale of what your members are facing.”

Gomez referenced a recent statement by Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Brenden Carr, who claimed that administration channels could be violating their regulatory obligations by airing “entirely fake polls” before the critical midterm elections, which are set to determine which political party will control both houses of the US Congress.

“Many journalists and broadcasters have been amplifying or airing these Polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics and without informing the public that those Polls lack a scientific, accurate, or even real basis,” Carr had stated on the social media platform X. Al Jazeera sought clarification from the FCC regarding which specific journalists and broadcasters allegedly aired fake polls and which polls were being referenced, but the agency did not respond to the inquiry.

Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, criticized Carr’s remarks, asserting, “Brendan Carr is not the journalism police. And he is just about the least qualified person in the country to lecture the press about journalistic ethics. The tell is that literally every time he attacks the press, it’s because of reporting that was unfavorable to his boss.”

Carr had previously advised in his social media post that “Broadcasters are advised to avoid engaging in News Distortions or running Broadcast Hoaxes.”

Gomez further elaborated in her letter, “This Administration is running a coordinated, government-wide effort to reshape the media into its sanctioned messenger, and the Federal Communications Commission has become one of its most active instruments. That is playing out across several fronts. One of the most brazen efforts involves how this Commission has recently suggested that broadcasters who air polling that does not align with this Administration’s preferred narrative could face an FCC news distortion or broadcast hoax investigation.”

Gomez clarified that the FCC has a high threshold for proving news distortion, noting it only applies when a broadcaster “knowingly airs false information about a crime or catastrophe and that broadcast directly causes immediate and substantial harm to public safety or property.” She added that the agency lacks the authority to act without clear evidence, concluding, “Reporting the results of a poll this Administration happens to dislike does not come close to meeting those standards.”