FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez has long been warning about what she calls a weaponization of the agency under the Trump administration. Now she is petitioning the NAB for help, directly asking Curtis LeGeyt to speak louder for stations facing pressure.
Commissioner Gomez sent the NAB’s president a letter dated October 22 asking the association to warn its members about what she describes as a coordinated administration effort to pressure broadcasters.
Gomez wrote, “NAB is one of the few institutions with the reach to warn the entire broadcast industry about a threat that is now actively targeting broadcasters across the country. Your organization speaks for thousands of stations nationwide, many of which do not have the legal resources or the political standing to push back on their own when the FCC comes calling, and you are best positioned to ensure every one of them understands what is happening and why it matters heading into the upcoming midterm elections.”
The entreaty comes after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr recently suggested that stations airing polling that does not align with the administration’s preferred narrative could face a news distortion or broadcast hoax investigation.
She said the FCC’s own guidance requires proof that a broadcaster deliberately distorted a factual report on a significant event, backed by documented evidence of an intentional effort to mislead the public. The hoax rule, she wrote, applies only when a station knowingly airs false information about a crime or catastrophe and the broadcast directly causes immediate and substantial harm to public safety or property.
Gomez stated, “An industry confronting a coordinated effort to turn licensing authority into leverage over election-year coverage needs more than a couple of tempered statements. Your members deserve to hear from their leading voice with the same clarity and urgency that their First Amendment rights, and their bottom line, call for.”
On equal opportunities, Gomez wrote that the Media Bureau rewrote long-settled guidance on which programs qualify for the bona fide news interview exemption in Section 315 of the Communications Act, acting without input from the full Commission. She cited ABC’s parent company, which has alleged that the timing was designed to create legal exposure and that no candidate has appeared on its daytime show since an investigation began in February.
The lowest unit charge, the discounted rate reserved for candidates buying campaign advertising, drew a similar complaint. Gomez wrote that agency staff reinterpreted which spenders qualify, extending the discount to joint fundraising committees and coordinated party advertising. She said the interpretation was not adopted by the full Commission and remains in effect heading into the final stretch of the midterms.
In August, Radio Ink reported that a divided Fourth Circuit panel set aside the Media Bureau’s March 30 notice. In September, the Supreme Court stayed that ruling, leaving the expanded rule in effect for now, and Gomez criticized the guidance at the time.
Gomez credited NAB for speaking against the FCC’s early license renewal order, then wrote, “I would not be doing my job if I did not say plainly that the volume of that response has not yet matched the scale of what your members are facing.” She asked NAB to respond with clarity and urgency and offered to work with the association directly on getting members accurate information about what the law requires.
“Ultimately, your members did not sign up to serve as an arm of any political campaign, and they should not be made to choose between their license and their integrity,” she added.
