Brendan Carr says his broadcast license threat was not actually about coverage of the Iran war

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters after an event hosted by FGS and traffic lights.

“My comments were not actually related to the Iran war,” Carr said in response to a question. Edge About his statement regarding war coverage. “I understand why people say that. I made a statement citing a tweet.”

On March 14, Tweet Carr’s quote A screenshot of a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump, who complained about an “intentionally misleading headline” regarding US military action in the Middle East. In response, Carr tweeted: “Broadcasters who spread news hoaxes and distortions — also known as fake news — now have an opportunity to correct course before their licenses are renewed.” “The law is clear. Broadcasters must act in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.” His comments were On a large scale I mentioned your to threaten Because of negative news coverage of the war.

Carr Broadcasters warned earlier They could lose the station’s licenses over late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s airing, and Disney briefly pulled him from the air after comments raised by Carr. He has defended it ever since They denied that they posed a threat at all. At the event on Thursday, Carr said he had no plans to revoke broadcast licences. “You never know, but I have no plans,” he said. “Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, says the big guy.”

“The only thing we talked about about withdrawing broadcast licenses is for operators who are not working in the public interest, who are cheating broadcasters and distorting the news,” he said. “As long as you don’t do that, you can cover anything any way you want.”

Carr has been happy to see platforms like X and Meta change their policies in ways he sees as fairer. “This type of course correction in the market has led to a decrease in many calls for regulatory intervention,” he said during the on-stage interview. Semaphore Rohan Goswami. Speaking with reporters afterward, Carr said he “kind of stopped talking about free speech” on tech platforms when he was head of the agency, claiming that “people are confused” about what he sees as “apples and oranges” issues related to the policies of online platforms and broadcasters, whose licenses are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). agency recently consent NextStar and Tegna merge, which would make the company Reaches 80 percent of US TV householdsexceeding the ownership limit of 39 percent.

The need to regulate technology platforms has increased as what Carr considers “bad behavior” has diminished. In response to a question about whether such regulation is content-based if the need for it changes based on what platforms choose to moderate, Carr said it is still a matter of behavior. “When you have market power, or when you abuse that market power in a way that stifles individual freedom, I think that potentially creates the basis for regulation.”

When asked on stage whether he had weaponized the tools at his disposal as he accuses Democrats of doing, Carr said he chose a simple approach. “Why don’t we apply the law in an impartial and balanced way? And that’s what I think we’re doing here.”