Trump FCC Pick Threatens On Fox News To Punish CBS Over Kamala Harris Interview When He Takes Over

Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told Fox News that a big merger could be in jeopardy when he takes over and cited Trump’s complaints about a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on CBS News as the reason why.

The VP’s big 60 Minutes interview went over like a lead balloon with Trump and his supporters, who accused the show of “deceitful” editing. That interview is the subject of a lawsuit and an FCC complaint.

On Tuesday’s edition of Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, Carr told Dana Perino he expects that complaint to figure in the decision of another matter — a mega-merger between Paramount and Skydance:

BRENDAN CARR: There’s a couple of top issues. Number one is looking at tech censorship. Free speech is the bedrock of our democracy. And there’s been this unprecedented surge in censorship over the last couple of years. And we need to restore American’s First Amendment rights.

Number two is to look at our approach to media. You know, Jeff Bezos just recently did an op ed where he said that Americans don’t trust the news media. He said now they’re the least trusted of all. And I think he’s speaking a lot of truth there. So I think the status quo, particularly when it comes to legacy media, needs to change.

And three, we have a real opportunity to get the economy going and creating jobs. When President Trump came in in 2017, we were behind the eight ball when it came to communications policy and he turned things around. And that’s exactly what is going to happen again.

We need to free up more spectrum. We need to do permitting reform. We talk about real broadband. That’s the key there.

And number three is the space economy. I’m down here in South Padre Island right now. There’s gonna be another Starship launch later today. That simply cannot take longer to move, permitting paper from one desk at an agency to another than it does to build and launch these rockets. And we’re going to unleash America’s private sector again.

DANA PERINO: What can the FCC do to help legacy media?

BRENDAN CARR: You know, there’s a lot the FCC can do.

Broadcasters are differently situated than other speakers. They get free access to a valuable public resource, the airwaves. And they’re licensed by the FCC. And the exchange for that is the extra the public interest.

I think it’s important that we take another look at that and we reinvigorate it.

There’s also a news distortion complaint at the FCC still having me with CBS and CBS has a transaction before the FCC.

And I’m pretty confident that that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that’s likely to arise in the context of the FCC review of that transaction.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom.