Conservative Groups to FCC: Dismiss CBS Complaint and Scrap News Rules

Eight conservative groups want the FCC to dismiss its news distortion complaint against CBS to prevent setting precedent that could be used against conservative media, said a letter posted Thursday in docket 25-73. The letter -- from Americans for Tax Reform, the Center for Individual Freedom, Digital Liberty and others -- also called for the FCC to eliminate the news distortion and news hoax rules. “All of these rules and procedures open the door for politicians to play politics with broadcasting.”

The groups “fear that an adverse ruling against CBS would constitute regulatory overreach and advance precedent that can be weaponized by future FCCs.” The letter listed occasions where Democrats called for or acted against conservative entities, including a 2021 effort by House Democrats to prevent the sale of a Florida radio station to a conservative owner, the previous FCC seeking comment on a petition to deny the license of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia, and a 2021 U.S. Senate hearing on COVID-19 disinformation. “We do not view this complaint in isolation,” the groups said. “While many pundits and free speech advocates have made breathless claims about this public comment period as a threat to democracy, many of those same commenters were silent when the politics of the parties involved were different.” The list also included the previous FCC’s revocation of Starlink’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund award and its abandoned 2014 Critical Information Needs studies. “Unfortunately, this practice is all too common,” the letter said. “And you, Chairman [Brendan] Carr, have been consistent in calling out these efforts and their associated dangers for free speech.”

The groups said they understand why many conservatives want to use “the same regulatory cudgel” used against them to thwart entities like Paramount. However, “the right course of action today is to work to insulate the Commission from such pressures, not to replicate them in a different context." The FCC should guard against “future abuses by Democrats and leftwing organizations by streamlining license renewals and merger reviews and eliminating the news distortion and news hoax rules,” the letter said. “We believe any adverse rulings against CBS ... would create far more harm than good, including for the future of conservative media.” The Center for American Rights, the group behind the news distortion complaint, didn’t immediately comment.