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The people who back Donald Trump and write his policies have made it obvious that they want to destroy public media. Now, Trump’s FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, has sent a letter to public broadcasters NPR and PBS saying that he plans to investigate them for potentially having violated federal law. In the very same letter, he made it clear that he, personally, doesn’t believe they should receive public funding.
Carr’s letter revolves around public media’s long-held practice of being underwritten by corporate sponsorships. Carr claims those sponsors may be getting inappropriate promotions from the networks that resemble advertisements. NPR and PBS, which are technically noncommercial educational broadcast stations (or NCEs) are federally prohibited from airing commercials. Thus, Carr has authorized a probe into both media organizations by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Carr said, in a letter sent to the broadcasters and reported by the New York Times. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements,” he said.
“For your awareness, I will be providing a copy of this letter to relevant Members of Congress because I believe this FCC investigation may prove relevant to an ongoing legislative debate,” Carr continues. “In particular, Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming.”
“For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967,” he added.
When reached for comment by the Times, NPR’s top executive, Katherine Maher, said that NPR complies with federal regulations. “We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules,” Maher told the newspaper. “We have worked for decades with the F.C.C. in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States.”
Carr’s criticism is more technical than what other right-wing critics of public broadcasting have said. For example, Elon Musk has claimed that NPR and other public broadcasters are “state” propaganda, on par with those from Russia or China. However, Carr is saying the opposite: according to him, NPR is actually a commercial entity that is non-commercial “in name only.”
Carr’s allegation is an incredibly ballsy one coming from someone working for the new Trump administration which, already, appears to be violating federal laws left, right, and center, and, as such, may be engaging in criminal activity on a massive scale.
