WASHINGTON—Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has blasted Comcast over MSNBC’s coverage of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a social-media post that could be taken as a veiled threat against the NBC-owned stations licensed by the regulator.
Pennsylvania Rep. Ben Waxman, a Democratic state legislator, called the post “dangerous, authoritarian and wrong.”
In the April 16 post on X that has racked up more than 1 million views, Carr weighed in on the dispute over the deportation of the El Salvadoran immigrant by writing: “Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man.’ ”
“When the truth comes out, they ignore it,” Carr continued. “Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it. Abrego Garcia came to America illegally from El Salvador, was validated as a member of the violent MS-13 gang—a transnational criminal organization—and was denied bond by an immigration court for failure to show he would not pose a danger to others. Why does Comcast ignore these facts of obvious public interest?”
It is relatively unusual for the head of an independent regulatory agency to weigh in on critical news coverage of administration policies that are outside of their agency’s purview, such as foreign policy or immigration policy.
Comcast has already drawn Carr’s ire over its DEI policies and Carr’s FCC is aggressively pursuing investigations into news distortion by stations owned by ABC, NBC and CBS.
Contrary to President Donald Trump’s recent April 13 statement that CBS should lose its license over coverage in the network’s news program, “60 Minutes”, networks like CBS are regulated but not licensed by the FCC. Nor is Comcast's MSNBC licensed by the FCC.
The FCC does license broadcast stations but its decision to revive news distortion complaints dropped by then-FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel in January over First Amendment issues has been highly controversial. The NAB has called them “unconstitutional” and a bipartisan group of former FCC chairs and commissioners said the FCC was acting as the “White House’s personal censor” by threatening the station’s licenses over their news coverage.
Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular “Maryland man.”When the truth comes out, they ignore it.Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the… https://t.co/0sGZHQvp5rApril 16, 2025
