ICYMI: In Appearance on Morning Joe, Cantwell Defends Freedom of the Press, Demands FCC Chairman Carr Testify Before Commerce Committee

ICYMI: In Appearance on Morning Joe, Cantwell Defends Freedom of the Press, Demands FCC Chairman Carr Testify Before Commerce Committee

"…America should agree that if you want free speech, if you want freedom of expression, you also have to have a free press."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - This morning, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation - which oversees the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - joined MSNBC's Morning Joe in the wake of ABC's firing last week of comedian Jimmy Kimmel, to defend freedom of speech, freedom of the press and to demand that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testify before the Commerce Committee as soon as possible. On Friday, Sen. Cantwell sent a letter to Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling for Chairman Carr to appear before the Committee.

"…Brendan Carr should come before the Commerce Committee and talk about his actions that look like he's trying to influence these decisions that are licensure decisions based on what the President wants, and that has no place in the FCC," said Sen. Cantwell.

"I do think this has been a long position of Senator Cruz's, and I hope that he'll take us up on the chance to have a hearing because then you could expound on this in a very broad way and show the American people that there is a bipartisan move to keep local journalism per se in America," continued Sen. Cantwell. "When you think about these broader issues here-- and you had some guests on earlier that are talking about media consolidation-- if you want perfect information, you have to have competition. You can't just have a one-sided story. So, the Wall Street Journal needs to be there, and the Seattle Times needs to be there."

Later in the interview, Sen. Cantwell also addressed media consolidation, and the damage that it can do to journalism in America.

"Now, enter the Trump Administration, where more and more of this content is being consolidated by people who might put it behind a pay wall," said Sen. Cantwell. "We want many, many voices like local journalism to exist. We want competition, and we don't want them to be intimidated off the air. We want them to be free to the American consumer, and we want that to be a diversity of voices. And that's what we should be asking Brendan Carr, how he's going to deliver on that, instead of shrinking it."

Sen. Cantwell has strongly defended Mr. Kimmel and condemned the actions of Chairman Carr from the beginning. Following the announcement of Mr. Kimmel's firing, Sen. Cantwell issued a statement the Chair Carr lack the authority to police free speech and connecting the firing to the proposed Nexstar has a pending $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna by Nexstar that will require FCC approval. On Thursday, she joined Democratic members of the Commerce Committee in sending a letter to Chair Carr demanding that he immediately stop threatening media organizations over content the Trump Administration does not like, in violation of the First Amendment. And as mentioned above, on Friday Sen. Cantwell led Democrats on the Committee demanding Chairman Cruz call Chair Carr to testify before the Committee following his threats to use the regulatory power of the FCC to compel ABC to fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

The full interview is below and video is HERE.

Joe Scarborough: That's Republican Chair of the Commerce Committee, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, comparing those comments by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week, just before ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air, to that of a mob boss. Now, Democrats are calling on Senator Cruz to demand that Carr testify at an oversight hearing. With us now, the Ranking Member of that committee, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. I will say Senator, I am heartened, was heartened, to see the Wall Street Journal editorial page say basically the same thing that Ted Cruz said last week, talking about how this is how mob bosses talk. This isn't how the FCC talked. We saw Rand Paul saying the same thing yesterday. We heard from Ted Cruz. Somebody said earlier on the show Tucker Carlson said the same thing. I'm wondering, it seems that we may have a convergence on an issue, for once, people very concerned. As Ted Cruz said, this is dangerous as hell, and said earlier, Republicans should be just as scared as Democrats, liberals as much as conservatives, because at some point there will be a Democratically appointed FCC chair again in Washington, DC.

Sen. Cantwell: Well, there might be something that Seattle and Houston agrees on, but really, America should agree that if you want free speech, if you want freedom of expression, you also have to have a free press. And Brendan Carr should come before the Commerce Committee and talk about his actions that look like he's trying to influence these decisions that are licensure decisions based on what the President wants, and that has no place in the FCC.

Jonathan Lemire: So Senator, we have spoken a lot since January about how the Republicans in Congress, House and Senate, have largely abdicated their responsibility and their powers here, giving the free reign to the White House, but this is an issue, at least in some quarters of the GOP, where Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, there are others, have sounded the alarm a little bit. Do you think-- we talked about bipartisanship, the spirit of it, but what are some concrete steps that could come of this? Is there a way where you could see yourself working across the aisle with your Senate colleagues to bring a stop to this or put a spotlight on this so outrage, perhaps, would grow.

Sen. Cantwell: Absolutely, I do think this has been a long position of Senator Cruz's, and I hope that he'll take us up on the chance to have a hearing because then you could expound on this in a very broad way and show the American people that there is a bipartisan move to keep local journalism per se in America. When you think about these broader issues here-- and you had some guests on earlier that are talking about media consolidation-- if you want perfect information, you have to have competition. You can't just have a one-sided story. So, the Wall Street Journal needs to be there, and the Seattle Times needs to be there.

And what we would like to see is some of the things, like the Blackburn-Cantwell bill, like the COPIED Act, basically says that you have to have both consent and compensation to copy news information. Yet, that's not what's happening online right now. You basically have a lot of the basic advertising revenue being eaten away [from] local broadcasters.

So, no surprise that the NAB has also joined this call today with a letter saying, you have to understand the context in which all of this is happening: less and less free media and more and more stuff being put behind a pay wall, and not even having the compensation to keep that journalism alive, and thus that free expression.

Joe Scarborough: Senator, can you also talk about you were just saying something along the lines about media consolidation, and we've been looking at the dangers of this. That is what has given the Administration its leverage, that you have two massive corporations who want to merge local stations together. You have a possible merger with Warner Brothers-Discovery, and so you have Paramount and others that are jockeying for the President's favor, so he'll approve their merger instead of the others' merger. Talk about how media consolidation and these massive media companies that have 1000 other interests-- I mean, you look at Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post. The Washington Post is just a rounding error for him, so of course, he's going to be worried about offending the White House on issues that involve 99% of his revenues. Talk about the dangers of media consolidation and these media conglomerates and how it's undermining right now, our idea of what free press in this country should be.

Sen. Cantwell: Well, we issued a report from the Commerce Committee about this a couple of years ago, and basically, it shows that as advertising got commoditized online, basically you have less and less revenue streams for local journalism. But the public trusts local journalism. Why? Because you're not going to be on the air or you're not going to sell a newspaper if you're not accurate. But online, you can have a lot of inaccuracies, and the advertisers don't even know they're advertising next to those inaccuracies, so it creates an unlevel playing field.

Now enter the Trump Administration, where more and more of this content is being consolidated by people who might put it behind a pay wall. We want many, many voices like local journalism to exist. We want competition, and we don't want them to be intimidated off the air. We want them to be free to the American consumer, and we want that to be a diversity of voices. And that's what we should be asking Brendan Carr, how he's going to deliver on that, instead of shrinking it.

Jonthan Lemire: Yeah, an extremely important conversation. We appreciate you being with us. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state, thank you again.

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