Today, Public Knowledge joined 21 other public interest, civic, civil rights, and media advocacy organizations in a letter urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to defend the First Amendment and the rule of the law. The groups – including the National Hispanic Media Coalition, MediaJustice, NAACP, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and more – argue that “the American public has witnessed increasingly brazen examples of President Trump abusing his power to attack Americans’ constitutional rights, erode the rule of law, and advance his own personal and financial interests at the expense of the public interest.”
The following is an excerpt from the letter:
“President Trump’s unconstitutional and un-American attacks on the free press are hardly new. His second term, however, has seen these unseemly rhetorical attacks accompanied by an unprecedented weaponization of the FCC’s regulatory authority against television broadcasters to gain leverage in personal legal matters, extract financial settlement payments, and intimidate their news divisions to silence dissenting views and critical coverage.
“The president has repeatedly called for ABC, NBC, and CBS to lose their broadcast licenses in response to what he deems unfair coverage. While the president is entitled to his opinions as a media critic, the First Amendment clearly prohibits government officials from abusing federal power to silence, censor, or intimidate news media organizations. We recognize… that a free and open press is democracy’s last and best defense against tyranny. Your Democratic and Republican predecessors had the courage to defend this fundamental American value, publicly rejecting calls to regulate or punish broadcasters for their perceived political views. You, too, affirmed this principle in 2021, stating: ‘A newsroom’s decision about what stories to cover and how to frame them should be beyond the reach of any government official, not targeted by them.’
“Yet the Commission appears to have fully abandoned this principle in its review and approval of Skydance Media’s recent acquisition of Paramount Global, including CBS News and Stations. As you know, President Trump – acting in his personal capacity – filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS in late October, alleging that routine editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris amounted to ‘Election Interference and Fraud.’ Mr. Trump’s lawsuit was widely panned as ‘legally groundless’ … by legal experts from across the political spectrum. Yet the Commission withheld its approval of the transaction until CBS capitulated and agreed to pay $16 million. Moreover, the Commission’s eventual approval was conditioned on CBS accepting unprecedented and unconstitutional infringements on its editorial independence, including the hiring of a ‘bias monitor’ to police alleged unfairness toward President Trump and his allies.
“With CBS now effectively coerced into self-censorship, we’re troubled by recent Commission actions appearing to aim for similar outcomes at ABC and NBC. In letters sent to the Walt Disney Company (December 21, 2024) and Comcast Corporation (July 29, 2025), you warned of potential FCC intervention in ABC’s and NBC’s relationships with affiliated broadcast stations. Absent any valid statutory authority, and in light of President Trump’s repeated attacks on these networks and calls to put them out of business – and your own media appearances cheering on his attacks on ‘these legacy broadcast media outfits and the New York and Hollywood elites’ – these letters read as thinly veiled shakedown threats: Nice business you’ve got there. It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.
“Let us be clear: The FCC has no lawful authority to influence network newsrooms’ editorial decisions. As Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, your sworn duty is to the Constitution – not to any president. We urge you to speak up, as your predecessors have done and you yourself were once willing to do, in defense of the First Amendment and the rule of law.”
The following can be attributed to Chris Lewis, President & CEO of Public Knowledge:
“First amendment protections of a free press apply to broadcasters and news organizations regardless of who is in power in the White House and the FCC. Chairman Carr must end his intimidation of media companies and threats of retribution for legal speech and editorial decisions he disagrees with.”
You may view the letter for more information.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.