President Trump’s new head of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS, with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Chairman Brendan Carr wrote on Wednesday to the presidents and chief executives of NPR and PBS, Katherine Maher and Paula A. Kerger, respectively. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”
The FCC does not directly regulate the two networks. Instead, it evaluates the actions of roughly 1,500 public broadcasting stations across the country, which hold licenses granted by the FCC for use of public airwaves for radio and television, even in the digital age.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials"
Could you do us a solid and investigate every single other channel for the same thing? That would be pretty sweet.
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic, but just in case: they’re using this excuse specifically because the stations in question are publicly funded and their charter prohibits them from airing commercial advertisements. Of course, the fact that they have to take funding from corporate sponsors in the first place is a pretty good indication of just how insufficient their public funding is. And then there’s the annual pledge drives…
But yeah. I’m sure he’s real concerned that they might be violating federal law. So very concerned.
Thanks for the info! I did kinda figure it had something to do with being public funded, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make a joke about hating commercials lol