D.C. Memo: Carr’s Salute to Trump Has a Message for Big Tech, Broadcasters
◾ Nexstar CEO Targets 39% Cap ◾ NTCA CEO: Congrats Trump/Vance ◾ Speaker Johnson Outlines 2025 Agenda ◾ Amazon to FCC: Satellite ISPs Are for Real ◾ Shentel Adds 6,000 Fiber Subs
New FCC: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr yesterday issued a statement congratulating President Trump on his election victory. But at the same time, Republican Carr used that statement to outline something of an agenda if, as many expect, he is named FCC Chairman on Jan. 20, 2025 or soon thereafter. “When the transition is complete, the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth while advancing our national security interests and supporting law enforcement,” Carr said. For years, Carr has called for reform of Sec. 230 in communications law to prevent tech platforms from abusing legally protected moderation practices from squelching conservative voices. Carr was a leader in the effort to ban TikTok from app stores if its China-based owner ByteDance did not divest the asset. Regarding broadcasters, Carr last week accused NBC of breaching the Equal Time Rule when Saturday Night Live hosted Vice President Kamala Harris “50 hours before Election Day,” as Carr put it on his X feed. NBC eventually gave Trump air time. On Tuesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) sent a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel saying that the Democrat should focus on the transition over the next 75 days. “The American people have sent a clear and decisive message to Washington. It is time to change course. That is why I agree with congressional leadership that the FCC should immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial matter and focus on the transition,” Carr said. Rosenworcel media aides did not respond to email asking whether she had plans to step down in January.
Update on House Races: CBS News
DCTV: Nexstar Media Group CEO Perry Sook is hoping GOP control of the White House, the Senate, and potentially the House will result in repeal of major TV station ownership laws and regulations. “Obviously, the number one legislative priority for Nexstar and our trade association – the [National Association of Broadcasters] – is the deregulation of ownership at both the national and local level,” Sook told Wall Street analysts yesterday. With NAB, Sook said he will urge Congress to repeal a law that bars a single TV station owner from reaching more than 39% of TV households nationally. The FCC, he added, also needs to lift local market ownership restrictions. “The time is now to seek this reform and Nexstar is once again prepared to lead,” Sook said. Sook is Chairman of NAB’s Executive Committee. TV station owners will frame it as a bipartisan issue on Capitol Hill. “Republicans would see it as a ‘degulation, good for business' issue and Democrats and in fact all people would see it as an avenue to preserve local journalism,” he said. Sook said while TV stations are “stymied by regulations that were last updated in 2004,” Big Tech companies have “unfettered access to every screen in America” because of asymmetric regulation. “There’s no one who can look you in the eye with a straight face and say the current regulations make any sense,” Sook said. In August, Nexstar hired Scott Weaver as Senior Vice President of Government Relations to establish the company’s first Office of Government Affairs in Washington, D.C., and quarterback the company’s Washington lobbying. “I’m spending a good deal of my time there on this,” said Sook, who is based in Irving, Texas.