Brendan Carr emphasized free speech during the interview, which he said is 'the bedrock of our democracy'
Trump FCC chair pick stresses need to 'restore' First Amendment rights
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss his top priorities if he is confirmed as FCC chairman under the Trump administration.
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair spoke to "America's Newsroom" on Tuesday and told host Dana Perino that the legacy media's status quo needed to change.
"Jeff Bezos just recently did an op-ed where he said that Americans don't trust the news media. He said now they're the least trusted of all. And I think he's speaking a lot of truth there. So I think the status quo, particularly when it comes to legacy media, needs to change," Carr said.
Trump tapped Carr, who is currently the senior Republican member of the FCC, to lead the FCC on Sunday. Perino asked Carr what the agency can do to help legacy media.
"There's a lot the FCC can do," he said. "Broadcasters are differently situated than other speakers. They get free access to a valuable public resource, the airwaves. And they're licensed by the FCC. And the exchange for that is they have to serve the public interest. I think it's important that we take another look at that, and we reinvigorate it."
Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr testifies during the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing titled Connecting America: Oversight of the FCC, in the Rayburn Building on Thursday, March 31, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
There's also a news distortion complaint at the FCC still, having to do with CBS, and CBS as a transaction before the FCC. And I'm pretty confident that that news distortion complaint over the CBS ‘60 Minutes’ transcript is something that's likely to arise in the context of the FCC's review of that transaction," Carr continued.
TRUMP TAPS FCC MEMBER BRENDAN CARR TO LEAD AGENCY: 'WARRIOR FOR FREE SPEECH'
Carr said his top issues included looking at tech censorship.
"Free speech is the bedrock of our democracy," Carr said. "And there's been this unprecedented surge in censorship over the last couple of years. And we need to restore Americans' First Amendment rights."
"We have a real opportunity to get the economy going in creating jobs. When President Trump came in 2017, we were behind the 8-ball when it came to communications policy, and he turned things around. And that's exactly what is going to happen again. We need to free up more spectrum. We need to do permitting reform, when you talk about rural broadband. That's the key there. And No. 3 is the space economy," Carr added.
He said the Trump administration would "unleash America's private sector again."
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at McCamish Pavilion on October 28, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Carr spoke out against Vice President Kamala Harris' appearance on "Saturday Night Live" ahead of Election Day and said the network would have had to offer the same amount of time to then-GOP candidate Trump.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
