Ex-FCC chairs from both parties say CBS news distortion investigation is bogus

The Federal Communications Commission’s news distortion investigation into CBS drew a public rebuke from a bipartisan group of five former FCC commissioners, including two former chairmen.

The group criticizing current Chairman Brendan Carr includes Republican Alfred Sikes, the FCC chair from 1989 to 1993, and Democrat Tom Wheeler, the FCC chair from 2013 to 2017. They were joined by Republican Rachelle Chong, Democrat Ervin Duggan, and Democrat Gloria Tristani, all former commissioners.

“These comments are submitted to emphasize the unprecedented nature of this news distortion proceeding, and to express our strong concern that the Federal Communications Commission may be seeking to censor the news media in a manner antithetical to the First Amendment,” the former chairs and commissioners told the FCC in a filing this week.

The Center for American Rights filed the news distortion complaint against flagship station WCBS over the editing of a CBS 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. The complaint was dismissed in January by then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the FCC, revived the complaint shortly after taking over.

“Editorial judgment protected by First Amendment”

The Center for American Rights’ claim of news distortion is based on an allegation that CBS misled viewers by airing two different responses from Harris to the same question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one on 60 Minutes and the other on Face the Nation. But CBS provided the FCC with a transcript showing that the programs aired two different sentences from the same response.

“The transcript confirms that the editing choices at issue lie well within the editorial judgment protected by the First Amendment and that the Commission’s January 16 dismissal of the complaint was legally correct,” the former chairs and commissioners wrote. “Yet the Commission has reopened the complaint and taken the highly unusual step of inviting public comment, even though the proceeding is adjudicatory in nature. These developments have unjustifiably prolonged this investigation and raise questions about the actual purpose of the proceeding.”

The FCC has historically punished licensees only after dramatic violations, like “elaborate hoaxes, internal conspiracies, and reports conjured from whole cloth,” they wrote. There is “no credible argument” that the allegations against CBS “belong in the same category.”

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