MIAMI—Federal Communications Commission commissioner Anna Gomez continued her criticism of the FCC’s investigation into “news bias” at CBS during a visit in Miami to CBS’s owned and operated WFOR TV station.
Gomez’s staff reported that the visit is part of a series of television and radio station visits by the Commissioner to engage with broadcasters across the country and to better understand the media market and its challenges, while analyzing how the FCC’s actions impact different communities.
A news release publicizing the Feb. 18 visit highlighted the FCC’s recent decision to revive its investigations into broadcast stations owned by CBS, ABC and NBC by noting that “the FCC has—without evidence—revived complaints previously dismissed by agency experts against broadcast stations owned and operated by national broadcast networks. This weaponization of the FCC’s broadcast licensing authority has been seen as a retaliatory move against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable by the government. The Communications Act, which governs the FCC’s actions, prohibits the Commission from censoring broadcasters. Similarly, the First Amendment protects journalistic decisions against government intimidation.”
"Consumers shouldn’t be caught in the middle of partisan politics here in Washington,” Gomez said. “Stations like this one are a valuable resource for seniors, veterans and residents to receive lifesaving information about emergency conditions and local alerts. The FCC should not be in the business of controlling access to vital local information. Instead, we should focus on protecting and expanding the public’s ability to receive timely, accurate news without political interference.”
More on TV Tech's coverage of those investigations can be found here.
Gomez visited the station while she was in Miami for a symposium with Hispanic media executives.
During the meeting, Inside Radio reported that Gomez said “We clearly see that there's something that isn't working” and that Hispanic ownership of broadcast media remains low. “This tells us the Latino community is not being served as well as other communities,” Gomez said. “It appears that there are financial challenges that arise out of limitations on audience measurement tools—these financial challenges translate to less money available to support high-quality content.”
