FCC Pick Willing to Do Trump's Bidding, Reward Billionaires and Attack Newsrooms

WASHINGTON – On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump named Brendan Carr as the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Carr has served as a commissioner at the FCC since 2017 and is one of the co-authors of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, a far-right policy roadmap for the incoming administration. 

Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:

“Brendan Carr has been campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Carr doesn’t care about protecting the public interest; he got this job because he will carry out Trump and Musk’s personal vendettas. While styling himself as a free-speech champion, Carr refused to stand up when Trump threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of TV stations for daring to fact check him during the campaign. This alone should be disqualifying.

“The public needs a watchdog looking out for them at this independent agency, not an attack dog for Trump and Musk. Carr’s agenda includes giving away billions in taxpayer dollars to favored corporations like Musk’s Starlink satellite business. He supports media mergers and will give Trump’s cronies control of even more TV and radio stations. He’s committed to ending Net Neutrality and undermining the FCC’s ability to hold accountable companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon for abusing internet users. 

“Carr is the only sitting government official who co-authored a chapter in the extremist Project 2025 policy roadmap that will apparently guide this administration. His close relationships with far-right zealots and his craven cozying up to the CEOs he’s supposed to be regulating tell you everything about the kind of FCC chairman he will be. For more than a year now Carr has been auditioning for this job, desperate to gain Trump’s attention and show how he’s willing to bend the rules and twist the law to serve this administration. His groveling is now being rewarded with a promotion, and it’s the American public who will pay a heavy price.”