FCC Chair Carr Says Broadcast Licenses Are Not a “Property Right”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said in an interview that broadcast licenses are not a “property right,” doubling down on warnings to broadcasters over their coverage, according to CBS News. The remarks followed a Saturday post on X in which Carr said stations that air “fake news” must “correct course before their license renewals come up,” NBC News and CBS News reported.

“People have gotten used to the idea that, you know, licenses are some sort of property right, and there’s nothing you can do that can result in losing their license,” Carr told CBS News. “I try to sort of help reorient people that, no, there is a public interest, and broadcast is different.” In his post, Carr wrote that “broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not,” per Reuters, as carried by NBC News.

Carr’s post accompanied a screenshot of President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post that day. Trump accused The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other papers of “terrible reporting” on the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, Reuters reported. CBS News said Trump’s post concerned coverage of an attack on U.S. air tankers in Saudi Arabia, writing that four of the five aircraft had “virtually no damage” and were already back in service. Neither the Times nor the Journal is a broadcaster. CBS News noted that Trump has often criticized broadcast TV news and has suggested some stations lose their licenses.

Democrats objected. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote that “it’s illegal for the government to censor free speech it just doesn’t like about Trump’s Iran war,” and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called it “the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be revoked,” CBS News reported. Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner, said the agency “can issue threats all day long, but it is powerless to carry them out,” adding that such threats “violate the First Amendment.” Reuters reported that a few prominent Republicans have also criticized the administration’s pressure on broadcasters.

Carr defended his approach. He told CBS News that broadcasters should “feel entirely free to do all of their reporting” so long as they are not engaging in “news distortion,” and that those who comply with their licenses “should feel, you know, very comfortable.” Anyone who dislikes the terms, he said, can move to cable or streaming or turn in the license. Reuters said Carr has argued that the FCC has failed for decades to enforce the public interest obligation of broadcasters who use public airwaves, and that polls showing widespread distrust of the media support his stance.

CBS News explained the limits of the agency’s reach. The FCC, an independent agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual stations, many owned by networks, but does not license networks such as CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox. Its authority over content standards covers over-the-air television and radio, not cable or streaming, and its own website says it does not regulate online content, CBS News reported.

Carr said there is no imminent effort to reassess licenses but pointed to open investigations that could be grounds to call for early renewal review, CBS News reported: an inquiry into ABC’s “The View” over the equal time rule and a probe of Comcast and its NBCUniversal subsidiary over diversity, equity and inclusion policies.