Blumenthal Demands Answers About FCC's Weaponization of 'Equal Time' Rule to Chill Free Speech

[WASHINGTON, DC] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), yesterday wrote to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Enforcement Bureau Chiefs Patrick Webre and Erin Boone demanding answers about the FCC's weaponization of the "equal time" rule to suppress critical coverage of President Trump and to favor partisan Republican politics. Blumenthal is seeking FCC records and information from the Enforcement Bureau after the FCC threatened broadcasters and suppressed news interviews such as Stephen Colbert's segment with Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.

"FCC Chair Carr's attempt to ground his partisan censorship scheme under legal pretense willfully misinterprets and disregards decades of settled precedent and ignores Americans' fundamental freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment," Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Webre and Boone. "Congress provided statutory exemptions to the equal time rule in 1959 for bona fide news interviews and newscasts, fearing that the onerous application of the rule 'would tend to dry up meaningful radio and television coverage of political campaigns' and impose a 'virtual blackout in the presentation of candidates on the news-type programs.'"

Blumenthal also wrote to Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison after the corporation acquiesced to political pressure from the FCC, raising the alarming prospect that Paramount is willing to silence free speech to elicit political favors from the Trump Administration.

"While CBS claimed Mr. Colbert could host all other candidates, in practice that would require providing airtime for up to 14 other candidates, which would create exactly the 'virtual blackout' that Congress sought to prevent by enacting an exception to the equal time rule in 1959," Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Ellison.

Blumenthal continued, "Additionally, the Subcommittee is engaged in an inquiry into political favoritism and the apparent corruption of antitrust review under the Trump Administration, including the FCC's review of Skydance's acquisition of Paramount and Paramount's attempts to acquire Warner Bros. Paramount's decision to comply, while it is attempting to enlist the Department of Justice and White House to intervene in the Warner Bros.' transaction, calls into question its motivations for silencing Mr. Colbert."

As Ranking Member of PSI, Blumenthal is conducting a preliminary inquiry into the FCC's abuse of power, including dubious investigations and misrepresentations for the law to silence free speech. In September, Blumenthal hosted a public forum with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on the Trump Administration's unprecedented efforts to use the FCC and government authority to chill First Amendment-protected speech and independent, fact-based news reporting.

The full text of Blumenthal's letter to Webre and Boone is available here. The full text of Blumenthal's letter to Ellison is available here.

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