Media Regulator or Adversary? The Changing Role of the FCC Leading up to USA’s 250th Birthday

Texas Democratic Senate Candidate James Talarico

Last week, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued an unprecedented call to action for U.S. broadcasters. He announced the creation of the Pledge America Campaign, an FCC initiative to advance the objectives of the White House’s Task Force 250 and its agenda of festivities.

“The Pledge America Campaign enables broadcasters to lend their voices in support of Task Force 250 and the celebration of America’s 250th birthday by airing patriotic, pro-America content that celebrates the American journey and inspires its citizens by highlighting the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the Trump Administration today.”

Carr’s examples of proper programming include:

Running PSAs, short segments, or full specials specifically promoting civic education, inspiring local stories, and American history.
Starting each broadcast day with the “Star Spangled Banner” or Pledge of Allegiance.
Airing music by America’s greatest composers, such as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, or George Gershwin.
Including segments during regular news programming that highlight local sites that are significant to American and regional history, such as National Park Service sites.

Jazz legend Duke Ellington made the FCC’s list of “patriotic, pro-America” content

Presumably this doesn’t include sites like New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, where Trump’s Administration is being sued for illegally removing a Pride Flag earlier this month.

What constitutes “patriotic, pro-America” programming has come under fire recently as the FCC has hinted it will change broadcast rules for interviewing political candidates. CBS Late night host Stephen Colbert said last week that the network’s lawyers told his show not to air a scheduled interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, as it would violate “FCC guidance” about giving equal time to political candidates. The move came as Texas voters began early voting last week.

Talk shows have historically been exempt from the FCC rule about providing equal time to political candidates. Colbert went ahead with the interview, airing it on his show’s YouTube channel, which is exempt from those rules. The Talarico clip currently has nearly nine million views.

“The administration was playing politics and was trying to control what a late-night show puts on air, something that’s never been done before,” Talarico said last week. “The executives at CBS were willing to go along with it.”

CBS is owned by mass media conglomerate Paramount Skydance Corporation. Its CEO and chairman is David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Larry Ellison is at the head of a consortium of investors who took control of TikTok’s U.S. operations last year. TikTok has been accused by users of censoring posts related to ICE activity, Jeffrey Epstein and the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

In 2024, Larry Ellison opined that a “vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure ‘citizens will be on their best behavior.'”