FCC Signals Ownership Limit Rollbacks As Carr Faces Heat Over Investigations.

The Federal Communications Commission remains on a path to roll back some of its media ownership rules, based on comments from Chair Brendan Carr during a House oversight hearing Wednesday.

“We’re looking at a number of issues related to this right now, and we haven’t made any final decision,” he told lawmakers. While he didn’t offer specifics, Carr repeatedly said his “North Star” will be giving local operators greater leeway to compete, acknowledging the Commission waited too long to roll back broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership limits.

“We left those rules in place, and over time, you saw investment decline, and now the shuttering of local news. So the touchstone has to be localism,” Carr said. “The thing that we’re trying to push the hardest on our media policies is to re-empower those local TV stations to compete in this modern media marketplace.”

Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, didn’t rule out supporting relaxing radio and TV ownership caps. But she remains concerned that too much consolidation will reduce programming diversity.

“Consolidation is worrisome,” she said. “What I fear is that this consolidation is going to enable behemoth corporate parents to take those local broadcasters and to create ‘efficiencies’ that will, in fact, water down local news and then lead to less service for their communities, not more.”

NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt was nevertheless encouraged by the support from several subcommittee members who urged the FCC to modernize media limits. “Their support reflects growing recognition that modernizing these rules is essential to ensuring local stations can compete, innovate and continue serving their communities with trusted information,” LeGeyt said.

One looming issue in the debate is whether the FCC has the authority to unilaterally lift the caps, or whether it will take an act of Congress. While Carr said the Commission has long considered it a rule subject to adjustments, Gomez thinks it is a legal statute that needs Congress to update. The friction point may ultimately result in a legal challenge to any rule rollbacks approved.

Investigation Divide

During the more than three-hour hearing, several Democratic lawmakers were critical of what they view as a pressure campaign by Carr on broadcasters on behest of President Trump. That includes a probe into Audacy all-news KCBS/KFRC San Francisco (740/106.9) for an immigration enforcement report.

Carr told lawmakers the KCBS probe was based on a complaint received. And while it has heard back from Audacy, there is no update on the investigation. He also acknowledged that the FCC has “a range” of other investigations underway. But Carr pushed back against the criticism, saying the FCC has “an obligation” to enforce the public interest standard. “Broadcast licenses are not property rights,” he said.

Gomez, who has been critical of Carr’s investigations, said she continues to believe the FCC should avoid activities that lead to either policing bias or pressuring newsrooms into how to report the news. And she continued her assertion that the FCC should take steps to define what that standard is, saying its current form opens the path to misuse. “The FCC should stay out of content, whether we like it or not,” she said.

Carr was also questioned about the FCC scrubbing the word “independent” from its website after a Senate hearing last month in which he reversed a previous position that it is an independent agency. “I’m pleased that the FCC website reflects my views,” Carr responded, reiterating his belief the President can fire commissioners at will.

The hearing also briefly touched on the fallout from the vote last July by Congress to end federal funding of public radio and television stations. Gomez told lawmakers the decision threatens the government’s ability to distribute emergency alerts since public media has been a “backbone” of the system — and the FCC hasn’t taken any steps to address the looming risk.

“It’s something that we really need to consider,” she said. “I would urge Congress to refund public media because of the important services that they provide, both from a public safety perspective and also to their local communities.”