In 11th-Hour Move, FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel Dismisses Four Television-License Complaints on First Amendment Grounds  

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed four broadcast-license petitions and complaints before the agency. She described each as a politicized effort to use the government’s TV-licensing authority in ways that “seek to curtail freedom of the press.”

Three of the complaints were right-wing efforts to punish television outlets for broadcasts that allegedly disadvantaged Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. These were championed by incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr as he aligned himself with the Trump campaign last year. A fourth was a petition to deny the license of a Fox-owned TV station, which was based on Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News, during which the Murdoch-owned entity admitted to lying to viewers about the outcome of the 2020 election.

“The facts and legal circumstances in each of these cases are different,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “But what they share is that they seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment. To do so would set a dangerous precedent. That is why we reject it here.”

Free Press Vice President of Policy and General Counsel Matt Wood said:

“Make no mistake: Free expression is under attack by Donald Trump and his cronies. They cloak themselves in the language of free speech, but they have completely warped the First Amendment. In their fragile politics of revenge and grievance, they believe that billionaires and powerful politicians can say anything they want without consequence, and that organizations or even individuals deciding to tune them out are engaged in some sort of censorship. 

“Trump’s views are exactly backwards. The First Amendment exists to protect people and the press from governmental retribution for their viewpoints. It does not protect politicians and the powerful from critique and dissent. Yet we have an incoming administration quite literally threatening to jail journalists for doing their jobs, and an incoming FCC chairman talking about revoking broadcast licenses any time he disagrees with their political coverage.

“The news-distortion complaint lodged against Fox was very different from the more recent complaints. Fox settled a major case when the litigation showed that it had decided to present false information on its cable-news channel. That false information had devastating consequences in the January 6 attack on the peaceful transition of power four years ago. Lies knowingly aired by Fox News Channel and some Murdoch-owned Fox affiliates present a significantly different challenge to regulators than merely fact checking, editing or scheduling equal time for candidates in ways that displease the president-elect. Yet we agree with the urgent need to prevent the weaponization of the government against journalists and media companies on the eve of the inauguration, and in light of the dire threats the new administration poses.”