Trump’s FCC nominee avoids questions from Democrats on Carr’s ‘censorship agenda’

During a contentious Tuesday hearing on her nomination by Donald Trump to serve as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner, Senate Democrats hammered Danielle Thumann about recent actions taken by the Brendan Carr-led regulator that have been criticized as hostile to press freedom.

Thumann, who serves as senior counsel to Carr, is expected to be approved as commissioner, with Republicans in charge of the US Senate and House. But Ben Ray Luján, a senator of New Mexico, assured her that the commission’s actions will be under close scrutiny when Democrats take charge of the chamber in January.

Luján asked Thumann repeatedly whether she agrees with actions taken by Carr’s FCC, including a nearly unprecedented order in late April forcing ABC to apply early to renew its local station licenses, a move that immediately followed criticism of one of the network’s biggest stars, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, by the president and Melania Trump, the first lady. Carr was also accused of pressuring ABC affiliates to drop Kimmel’s show the previous fall.

“Do you support Chairman Carr’s illegal campaign to remove Jimmy Kimmel from the nation’s airways?” Luján asked.

“I have not worked with the chairman on any media-related issues, and I’m not familiar with all of the details regarding the investigation of ABC or the early license renewal of their licenses,” Thumann responded. “And I haven’t been involved in any of those conversations regarding any of their practices or regarding Jimmy Kimmel.”

Luján pressed Thumann to name an issue she has disagreed with Carr on, and she demurred. He also asked her whether it was “appropriate for the FCC to call up Disney’s broadcast license for early renewal”.

Several of Luján’s Democratic colleagues also took turns pressuring Thumann on the FCC’s actions toward television networks, with Ed Markey, the Massachusetts senator, grilling her on “Chairman Carr’s FCC censorship agenda”. “Ms Thumann, does the FCC have the authority to punish a broadcaster because the president disagrees with its news coverage?”

Pushing back on her response, Markey said: “Again, this should be a straightforward constitutional limitation, because the FCC cannot punish a broadcaster simply because the president doesn’t like his coverage. Yet Chairman Carr, your boss right now, has threatened to do exactly that.”

Markey accused her of choosing to “evade” his questions, saying that “anyone seeking a seat on the Federal Communications Commission must be willing to stand up to such threats and to defend the first amendment, and you are not willing to do so here in your confirmation hearing.”

Senator Tammy Duckworth also asked Thumann about whether she would yield to political pressure to punish disfavored networks. While Thumann said the commission has to deal with complaints against networks it regulates, she acknowledged that “editorial decision-making is protected by the first amendment for broadcasters”, and added: “I don’t think that a decision [about a station’s license] should be based purely on someone’s discontent with the content that’s being aired.”

Several Senate Democrats said it was inappropriate for the commerce committee to hold the confirmation hearing, and that if Republicans were going to nominate another member of the party to the commission, they should follow past precedent and nominate a Democrat as well. The FCC currently has one commissioner nominated by a Democratic president, Anna M Gomez, but her term has already technically expired.

At the end of the hearing, Luján issued a warning to Carr. “Mr Carr, if you’re listening now, know you’re going to be in this body once a month, if not more, and in the House of Representatives as well, answering questions, and you don’t have the protection of the gavel any longer,” he said. “Subpoena authorities that you have to respond to so we can get to the bottom of the nonsense and the cover-ups that have been taking place.”