Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai rejected a request from a dozen Senate Democrats for the agency to investigate Sinclair Broadcast Group after the company required local news anchors to recite a script warning viewers about “biased and false news.”
Democrats see that statement as a nod to Trump and his battle against “fake news,” and a sign that Sinclair is aligned with Trump.
In his letter to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., obtained by the Washington Examiner, Pai said he “must respectfully decline” the request from Cantwell and her fellow Democrats “in light of my commitment to protecting the First Amendment and freedom of the press.”
“I understand that you disliked or disagreed with the content of particular broadcasts, but I can hardly think of an action more chilling of free speech than the federal government investigating a broadcast station because of disagreement with its news coverage or promotion of that coverage,” Pai wrote.
The FCC chairman went on to cite remarks from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who wrote in a letter to Pai last year “any insinuation that elected officials could use the levers of government to control or sensor [sic] the news media would present a startling degradation of the freedom of the press.”
Pai also reiterated a commitment he made to members of the Senate Commerce Committee that the FCC would “not act in a manner that violates the First Amendment and stifles or penalizes free speech by electronic media, directly or indirectly.”
“A free media is vital to our democracy,” Pai wrote to Cantwell.
The Senate Democrats demanded in their letter to Pai the FCC put on hold its review of Sinclair’s potential merger with Tribune Media Company.
“We are concerned that Sinclair is engaged in a systematic news distortion operation that seeks to undermine freedom of the press and the robust localism and diversity of viewpoint that is the foundation of our national broadcasting laws,” the Democrats wrote.
The senators said the FCC should reopen the agency record on the potential merger to allow for public comments.
“We have strong concerns that Sinclair has violated the public interest obligation inherent in holding broadcast licenses,” they wrote. “Sinclair may have violated the FCC’s longstanding policy against broadcast licensees deliberately distorting news by staging, slanting, or falsifying information.”
The merger between Sinclair and Tribune has been a source of consternation for Democrats, who called for an investigation into Pai’s review of the transaction several months ago.
If the merger is approved, Sinclair would oversee 223 TV stations covering 72 percent of U.S. households.
