Public-Interest Groups Take Action Against Censorship Outside FCC Chairman's Dinner

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday evening, Free Press, Public Knowledge and TechFreedom joined to defend First Amendment rights outside the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) dinner at Washington, D.C.’s  Marriott Marquis on 901 Massachusetts Ave. NW.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr regularly abuses his regulatory authority to help silence President Donald Trump’s critics and reward his allies. By all accounts, Carr is colluding with the Trump White House to launch investigations and inquiries of broadcasters who anger the president. He’s also pressured broadcasters to silence late-night comedians — including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s Seth Meyers — based on jokes they’ve made on air.

These threats violate the First Amendment freedoms that Carr swore to defend and protect. Just before the chairman delivers his remarks at the FCBA dinner, Free Press, Public Knowledge and TechFreedom will project a series of images on the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church across the street from the Marriott, and will provide pins for event attendees that call on Carr to protect free speech and serve the public interest. 

The projections include the following text: “Tell the FCC: Serve the Public,” “Resist Censorship” and “Defend the First Amendment.” The buttons are an updated version of the official FCC logo, changing the agency’s name to the “Federal Censorship Commission” to reflect its present status under Carr’s anti-democratic approach. 

(To see images of the live projections email tkarr@freepress.net) 

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:

“While many people in D.C.’s media, tech and telecom industries would like to return to backslapping, bad jokes and business as usual at this chairman’s dinner, we can’t ignore the serious damage Brendan Carr is inflicting on an independent media system and functioning democracy. Rather than defending the public interest, Carr has dedicated himself to the pursuit of Trump’s personal vendettas against news outlets and individual reporters who the president dislikes, or who simply ask him difficult questions. He’s supplanted normal FCC policymaking with censorship and coercion. That won’t end until those with power stop capitulating and start speaking out against the abuse, corruption and shakedowns being carried out by this administration and its FCC chairman.”

President and CEO of Public Knowledge Chris Lewis said:

“First Amendment freedoms of free speech and a free press are essential pillars of our society. Without them, America falls into a society where the powerful overrun the minority and information critical to ensure an informed voting citizenry is lost to bullying and manipulation by government officials. Chairman Carr seems to have lost his understanding of these sacred freedoms and his role in protecting them at the FCC. It now falls to us, the public, to demand a return to the original understanding of these freedoms and the proper role of the FCC in protecting them.

“We can disagree on routine policy, but we must not disagree on basic freedoms and institutional power. As the chairman takes the podium tonight to exercise his right to free speech from the privileged position of the FCC, it is important that all Americans — on the left and the right; in the press and in the government; in industry and civil society — stand together for these foundational values until we are certain that the threats to a free press from our government officials are eliminated.”

President and Founder of TechFreedom Berin Szóka said:

“Seven former chairs and commissioners of the FCC from both parties recently signed a petition asking Chairman Brendan Carr to rescind the commission’s news-distortion policy for broadcasters. It’s just one of the agency’s policies that Carr has weaponized to directly advance the interests of the White House. We must resist these and other attempts to bully America’s free press into submission, much like authoritarians in Hungary, Turkey and other backsliding democracies.”