WASHINGTON—Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has sent a letter to the heads of PBS and NPR telling them the agency’s Enforcement Bureau is opening an investigation into the airing of sponsorships on public stations.
In an unprecedented move for an FCC chair, Carr also said he supported the elimination of Federal funding for public broadcasters, writing: “For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.”
Congress actually funds the Corporation of Public Broadcasters, not PBS or NPR.
The letter was immediately attacked by the two Democratic commissioners. Commissioner Anna M. Gomez wrote: “This appears to be yet another Administration effort to weaponize the power of the FCC. The FCC has no business intimidating and silencing broadcast media.”
Commissioner Geoffrey Starks argued: “Public television and radio stations play a significant role in our media ecosystem. Any attempt to intimidate these local media outlets is a threat to the free flow of information and the marketplace of ideas. The announcement of this investigation gives me serious concern.”
Both PBS and NPR issued statements saying they are in compliance with existing underwriting regulations.
In a letter to the heads of PBS and NPR, Carr said he was “writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC's Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation regarding the airing of NPR and PBS programming across your broadcast member stations … As you know, NPR and PBS distribute their programming through a network of approximately 1,500 NPR and PBS member broadcast stations. The relevant broadcast stations, which are licensed to operate by the FCC, are limited by the terms of their federal authorizations to operating as noncommercial educational broadcast stations- or NCES. Federal law prohibits any NCE station from running commercial advertisements.”
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing Commercials,” Carr wrote. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements. It is important to me, as chairman of the FCC, that NCE broadcast stations stay true to their important missions and refrain from operating as noncommercial in name only.”
In the letter, Carr also threatened that the sponsorships could lead to a cutoff of federal funding for the stations and said he supported cutting off funding for public broadcasting.
“I will be providing a copy of this letter to relevant Members of Congress because I believe this FCC investigation may prove relevant to an ongoing legislative debate,” he wrote. “In particular, Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming. For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage ofthe Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.”
In a statement NPR president and CEO Katherine Maher insisted that "NPR programming and underwriting messaging complies with federal regulations, including the FCC guidelines on underwriting messages for noncommercial educational broadcasters, and Member stations are expected to be in compliance as well. We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR's adherence to these rules. We have worked for decades with the FCC in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States."
