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Trump’s FCC is investigating NPR and PBS stations over sponsorships

By Liam Reilly, CNN

(CNN) — Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission’s new chairman, on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of NPR and PBS member stations.

In a letter obtained by CNN, Carr said he was “concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials.”

“In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements,” Carr wrote in the letter, which was sent to NPR chief executive Katherine Maher and PBS president and chief executive Paula Kerger.

NPR and PBS programming is aired to a network of around 1,500 member stations, all of which choose which programs to broadcast. The stations require licenses approved by the FCC to operate, and these licenses limit them as non-commercial educational broadcast stations, which are prohibited by federal law from airing advertisements. The FCC’s investigation will probe the underwriting announcements and policies of NPR and PBS, as well as their broadcast stations.

In a statement, Maher emphasized that the radio broadcaster and its member stations have complied with FCC regulations.

“We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules,” Maher wrote.

PBS, likewise, defended its compliance with FCC standards, saying in a statement that it has worked “diligently to comply with the FCC’s underwriting regulations.”

Carr also sent the letter to congressional lawmakers, noting the investigation “may prove relevant to an ongoing legislative debate” over whether “to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming.”

“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,” he wrote.

The investigation was first reported by the New York Times.

An echo of Trump’s attacks

The FCC’s probe echoes President Trump’s attacks on news organizations whose reporting he takes issue with. Last week, the FCC chair reversed eleventh-hour decisions from his predecessor, Jessica Rosenworcel, to dismiss complaints that had been brought against local CBS, ABC and NBC stations. Notably, Rosenworcel also dismissed a complaint that had blocked a Philly-based Fox division’s license renewal — a decision Carr did not reverse.

“We don’t have the luxury of doing anything other than making very, very clear that this agency and its licensing authority should not be weaponized in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel wrote in a January 16 statement.

Trump’s ire against the press is nothing new — as part of his retaliation against those who he believes have wronged him. On the campaign trail, he repeatedly took aim at news publishers. For example, in March, Trump slapped ABC News and George Stephanopoulos with a lawsuit that the Disney-owned broadcaster eventually settled for $15 million. And in November, Trump sued CBS over the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

CNN’s October review of Trump’s speeches and social media posts found that over the past two years, he has called for every major American TV news network to be punished.

Just two days after reassuming the presidency, Trump took aim at MSNBC in a Truth Social post.

“MSDNC is even worse than CNN,” Trump wrote. “They shouldn’t even have a right to broadcast — Only in America.”

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