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freedom of the press
FCC Probe Into NPR, PBS Denounced as 'Attack on the Freedom of the Press'
"The FCC chair is clearly undertaking an effort to bully and intimidate independent journalism, which is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes where democracy is under siege," said one critic.
Jan 31, 2025
U.S. press freedom advocates this week forcefully condemned Republican Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr's investigation into National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service that could lead to stripping them of government funding.
"If they weren't ringing already, alarm bells should be going off loudly," said Tim Richardson, program director for journalism and disinformation at PEN America, in a Thursday statement. "By using its investigatory powers, the FCC chair is clearly undertaking an effort to bully and intimidate independent journalism, which is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes where democracy is under siege."
"The Trump administration is clearly embracing such tactics and putting independent media at risk by undermining accountability of elected leaders and risking a less informed public," Richardson added. "We call on the FCC to dispense with such politically motivated investigations."
Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, was similarly critical, saying that "the commission should not bring frivolous investigations into media outlets simply because they do not like their coverage. Investigations like this can chill coverage and threaten the independence of the press, making it harder to hold the government accountable and keep us all informed."
I told @nytimes.com that Carr's claim that NPR and PBS broke sponsorship disclosure rules is an obvious pretext to attack their funding and independence. Carr was appointed to do Trump's censorial bidding. All his moves should be viewed through that lens.This “investigation” is a sham and meant to terrorize NPR and PBS. They have *rigorous* oversight on vetting the “this program brought to you by” statements and literally pages of documentation about it that they give to filmmakers like me. Support your local stations, they’re going to need it.
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— Ariel Waldman (@arielwaldman.com) January 30, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Free Press co-CEO Craig Aaron declared that "his seat as FCC chairman is barely warm, but Brendan Carr is already abusing his power and harassing public broadcasters with a sham investigation designed to scare journalists into silence. This is all part of Carr's far-right, Project 2025-inspired agenda."
"This bogus investigation is an attack on the freedom of the press and a bungling attempt to bash public broadcasters and further weaken their resolve to question the extremism, corruption, and cruelty of the Trump administration," Aaron warned. "This unjustified investigation isn't based on any genuine concern about whether there's too much advertising on public media. It's a blatant attempt to undermine independent, rigorous reporting on the Trump administration."
"Carr may not like public media—and that's no surprise given that he isn't a fan of journalism that holds public officials and billionaires accountable. In this, as in so many other areas under his purview, Chairman Carr is far out of step with the American public and their needs," he continued. "Communities all across the country rely on their local public radio and TV stations to provide trustworthy news reporting and a diversity of opinions. In every survey, the American public indicates it wants more support for public and community media, not less."
Aaron added that "in a healthy democracy, we would be investing enough in our public-media system that it wouldn't need to seek any corporate underwriting. Unfortunately, Carr's cronies in Congress and the Big Media barons they serve have instead for decades tried to zero out funding for public media. They have repeatedly failed because millions of viewers and listeners opposed them."
Carr—whom President Donald Trump first appointed to the FCC in 2017 and recently elevated to chair after he contributed to the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025—announced the probe in a Wednesday letter to NPR president and CEO Katherine Maher and PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger.
"I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials," Carr wrote. "I have asked the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, with assistance from the FCC's Media Bureau, to initiate an investigation into the underwriting announcements and related policies of NPR, PBS, and their broadcast member stations."
The chair added:
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. 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 of the 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.
Some federal lawmakers have already responded on social media. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said that "the letter from Chairman Carr announcing a new FCC investigation into NPR and PBS member stations is baseless. He cites no evidence at all. Instead, this investigation is a dangerous attack on public media and local journalism."
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) said that "public television and radio are essential for their local communities. The FCC must not be weaponized to intimidate and silence broadcast media. We should be supporting, not undermining, their contributions to journalism and the marketplace of ideas."
I told @nytimes.com that Carr's claim that NPR and PBS broke sponsorship disclosure rules is an obvious pretext to attack their funding and independence. Carr was appointed to do Trump's censorial bidding. All his moves should be viewed through that lens. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/b...
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— Seth Stern (@seth-stern.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The two Democratic members of the FCC have also responded critically to Carr's move. Commissioner Anna Gomez said that "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 said that "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."
Maher said in statement 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," she added. "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."
In a statement to NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, who reported on the probe, Kerger said that "PBS is proud of the noncommercial educational programming we provide to all Americans through our member stations... We work diligently to comply with the FCC's underwriting regulations and welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that to the commission."
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'Gift to the Ruling Class': Florida Bill Would Make It Easier for Officials Like DeSantis to Sue Critics
"Floridians should not tolerate their governor's experiments in authoritarianism in their name and at their expense."
Feb 21, 2023
A Florida House Republican introduced legislation Monday that would make it easier for state officials—such as censorship-happy Gov. Ron DeSantis—to sue for defamation, a measure that critics decried as a blatant attack on the freedom of the press and free expression with potentially sweeping implications.
Filed by Florida state Rep. Alex Andrade (R-2), H.B. 951 laments that the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan has "foreclosed many meritorious defamation claims to the detriment of citizens of all walks of life" by placing such claims under the purview of the federal government and establishing a high standard of proof.
As the Oyez Project summarizes, the high court held in the 1964 decision that "to sustain a claim of defamation or libel, the First Amendment requires that the plaintiff show that the defendant knew that a statement was false or was reckless in deciding to publish the information without investigating whether it was accurate."
Following the introduction of Andrade's bill, Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer, told the outlet Law & Crime that "it's black-letter law that a state cannot constitutionally provide less protection in libel litigation than the First Amendment requires."
"This text does just that, obviously intentionally," said Abrams. "If Governor DeSantis, a Harvard Law graduate, thinks the statute is constitutional, he's forgotten what he was taught. If he's looking for a way to offer the Supreme Court a case in which it might reconsider settled law, who knows. But what's clear is that it is today and tomorrow facially at odds with the First Amendment."
The new bill was filed two weeks after DeSantis, a possible 2024 presidential candidate, held a roundtable purportedly aimed at spotlighting the "defamation practices" of legacy media outlets. While DeSantis has framed his campaign against defamation as an attempt to empower "everyday citizens" against false attacks, free speech advocates warned that, in reality, the governor and his right-wing allies in the Legislature are looking to silence criticism of elected officials like themselves.
"DeSantis continues to make clear his disdain for freedom of speech and the press and to prioritize censoring dissent over governing," said Seth Stern, director of Advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and a First Amendment lawyer.
Andrade's bill, Stern argued, "would do nothing for ordinary Floridians but would allow government officials and celebrities to harass and even bankrupt their critics with expensive litigation."
"It would stifle investigative reporting by presuming any statements attributed to anonymous sources to be false despite that (or, given DeSantis' ambitions, maybe because) confidential sources have literally brought down presidents in this country," Stern added. "The Florida legislature should reject this political stunt and Floridians should not tolerate their governor's experiments in authoritarianism in their name and at their expense. The U.S. Congress should safeguard the First Amendment by codifying Sullivan and ensuring that the press and public are protected from politically-motivated defamation lawsuits."
"Unsurprisingly, it's peddled as a bill to protect the little guy. Nothing is further from the truth. It's a gift to the ruling class."
The Florida House measure, just the latest broadside against free expression by the state GOP, specifically urges the U.S. Supreme Court to "reassess" Sullivan, an effort that media lawyer Matthew Schafer described as "part of the right's world war on individual rights, equality, and democracy." (The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the 1964 ruling last year.)
"Unsurprisingly, it's peddled as a bill to protect the little guy," Schafer noted. "Nothing is further from the truth. It's a gift to the ruling class."
Andrade's bill, which resembles a proposal drafted by DeSantis' administration last year, outlines specific restrictions on who can and cannot be considered a "public figure" entitled to pursue defamation claims under the legislation.
The measure states that a person does not qualify as a public figure if their "fame or notoriety arises solely from" defending themselves against an accusation; "granting an interview on a specific topic"; "public employment, other than elected office or appointment by an elected official"; or "a video, an image, or a statement uploaded on the Internet that has reached a broad audience."
In a column last week, The Washington Post's Erik Wemple cautioned that DeSantis' attempts to target Sullivan could pose "a far greater threat to U.S. media" than former President Donald Trump's ultimately empty pledge to "open up" libel laws.
During his roundtable event earlier this month, "DeSantis, an ace practitioner of GOP media-bashing rhetoric, showed why some critics view him as a more dangerous embodiment of Trump's two-bit authoritarianism," Wemple wrote.
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AP Files Suit For FBI's Refusal To Come Clean on 'Fake Reporter' Operations
'While the public clearly has a strong, compelling interest in knowing more about the FBI’s use of this tactic, the FBI seems determined to withhold that information,' says lawyer involved with the case
Aug 28, 2015
Following public outrage expressed when it was first discovered last year, the Associated Press took legal action against the Department of Justice on Thursday for the FBI's failure to come clean about details surrounding its decision to impersonate an AP reporter as part of a covert investigation.
AP filed the suit with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) after the DOJ repeatedly refused to comply with open records requests for documents related to the case.
The lawsuit argues that AP and the Reporters Committee "are statutorily entitled to disclosure of these records, which they seek so that they may inform the public about the nature and extent of the FBI's impersonation of journalists and news organizations. Defendants have improperly withheld the records requested by Plaintiffs in violation of the law and in opposition to the public's strong interest in obtaining information regarding a law enforcement practice that undermines both the credibility and independence of the news media."
As the RCFP recounts:
The lawsuit stems from an FBI operation in 2007, during which agents created and published a fake AP news story in order to trick a criminal suspect into downloading surveillance software onto his computer, software that enabled the Bureau to track the suspect's location.
When the FBI's impersonation of the AP came to light in October of 2014, the Reporters Committee and 25 news organizations immediately sent a letter to the attorney general and FBI director calling it "unacceptable." AP also wrote to the attorney general protesting the FBI's use of a fabricated AP news story "in the strongest possible terms."
As Common Dreams reported at the time, FBI Director James Comey defended the agency's action. That technique was proper and appropriate under Justice Department and [FBI] guidelines at the time," he said last year. Today, the use of such an unusual technique would probably require higher-level approvals than in 2007, but it would still be lawful and, in a rare case, appropriate."
The news agency, however, took a much different view. "The FBI both misappropriated the trusted name of The Associated Press and created a situation where our credibility could have been undermined on a large scale," AP general counsel Karen Kaiser said in a 2014 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder.
In addition to the details of the 2007 case, the AP has requested further documentation regarding possible other examples of the FBI using the names of media outlets as cover or posing as journalists during investigations. None of the requests have been answered.
"We cannot overstate how damaging it is for federal agents to pose as journalists," said Reporters Committee litigation director Katie Townsend. "This practice undermines the credibility of the independent news media and should not be tolerated. Yet, while the public is interested in knowing more about the FBI's use of this tactic, the FBI seems determined to withhold that information. We have no choice but to look to the court for relief."
As AP notes, Thursday's filing marked the second time the news agency sued the federal government this year. In March, the news organization sued the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The case, involving unfulfilled FOIA requests dating back as long as five years, is ongoing.
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