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After NPR and PBS defunding, FCC receives call to take away station licenses

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/conservative-attacks-on-npr-a
nd-pbs-continue-with-call-to-take-fcc-licenses/ 

A conservative group yesterday urged the Federal Communications
Commission to take licenses away from NPR and PBS stations and let other
entities use the spectrum. The request came from the Center for American
Rights (CAR), a nonprofit law firm that has played a prominent role in
the news-distortion investigations spearheaded by FCC Chairman Brendan
Carr. 

“In the wake of the wind-down of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
and the end of federal funding for NPR and PBS, the Center respectfully
suggests that the Commission open an inquiry that looks at the future of
‘public’ broadcasting in that new environment,” a Center for American
Rights filing said. 

The CPB is set to shut down after Congress approved President Trump’s
request to rescind its funding. The Center for American Rights said the
CPB shutdown should be used as an opportunity to reassign spectrum used
by NPR and PBS stations to other entities. 

“If PBS and NPR cannot prove a viable long-term business model as
national networks—and if their individual affiliates cannot show
long-term business models in each market—then this Commission needs to
consider whether those channels (i.e., that spectrum) will become
available in the near future for other potential licensees or uses,” the
group said. 

Suggesting that PBS and NPR stations aren’t serving the public interest,
the CAR filing said the FCC “should ask whether PBS (and NPR) stations
are fulfilling their public-interest obligations as licensees when the
public’s elected representatives have just chosen to cut off public
funding because of their failure to serve the public well.” 

Republicans cut off funding
The Republican-led votes to eliminate CPB funding were criticized by
Democrats. “Republicans once again bent the knee to their wannabe King
Donald, rubber-stamping his cruel and callous cuts while robbing kids
and communities of free, high quality public programming,” Sen. Ed
Markey (D-Mass.) said at the time. 

The White House claimed that NPR and PBS “spread radical, woke
propaganda disguised as ‘news.’” Republican lawmakers agreed, with Sen.
Ted Cruz (R-Texas) saying during debate that public broadcasting “has
long been overtaken by partisan activists” and that “taxpayers should
not be forced to subsidize” NPR and PBS. 

The Center for American Rights urged the FCC to “require PBS and NPR and
their member stations to provide transparent financial information, to
give the Commission a viable long-term business model, and to tell the
Commission how they plan to increase donor support while maintaining
editorial independence. If in fact many local stations will ‘go dark,’
PBS and NPR need to provide wind-down or transition plans and those
stations need to give the Commission adequate notice to protect the
public.” 

The group alleged that “PBS sends out consistently liberal news,
entertainment, and education programming,” letting down “millions of
potential viewers of PBS affiliates in red states.” It further argued
that “if PBS does not have a viable long-term business model in many
markets, the Commission needs to consider what will become of its
historic role as a provider of daytime children’s programming.” 

Although revoking broadcast licenses in the middle of a term is
difficult legally, Carr has used the prospect of license revocations to
threaten broadcasters. Licenses can also be taken away from individual
stations when they’re up for renewal. 

We contacted NPR and PBS and will update this article if they provide
any comments. 

CAR and Carr on the same page
CAR and Carr generally seem to think alike when it comes to the FCC
punishing broadcasters for alleged liberal bias. During last year’s
election campaign, CAR filed complaints echoing Trump’s claims of bias
regarding ABC’s fact-checking during a presidential debate, the editing
of a CBS 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, and NBC putting Harris
on a Saturday Night Live episode. 

The CAR complaints were dismissed in January 2025 by then-FCC Chairwoman
Jessica Rosenworcel and then revived by Carr after Trump appointed him
to the chairmanship. Carr has continued making allegations of news
distortion, including when he threatened to revoke licenses from ABC
stations that air Jimmy Kimmel’s show. 

During the Kimmel controversy, Carr said he was trying “to empower local
TV stations to serve the needs of the local communities.” The FCC
subsequently opened a proceeding titled, “Empowering Local Broadcast TV
Stations to Meet Their Public Interest Obligations: Exploring Market
Dynamics Between National Programmers and Their Affiliates.” 

The FCC invited public comments on whether to adopt regulations “in
light of the changes in the broadcast market that have led to
anticompetitive leverage and behavior by large networks.” This could
involve prohibiting certain kinds of contract provisions in agreements
between networks and affiliate stations and strengthening the rights of
local stations to reject national programming. 

FCC criticized for attacks on media
The “Empowering Local Broadcast TV Stations” proceeding is the one in
which the Center for American Rights submitted its comments. Besides
discussing NPR and PBS, the group said that national networks
“indoctrinate the American people from their left-wing perspective.” 

“The consistent bias on ABC’s The View, for instance, tells women in red
states who voted for President Trump that they are responsible for
putting in office an autocratic dictator,” the Center for American
Rights said. 

The FCC proceeding drew comments yesterday from the National Hispanic
Media Coalition (NHMC), which criticized Carr’s war against the media.
“The Public Notice frames this proceeding as an effort to ‘empower local
broadcasters’ in their dealings with national networks. But… recent FCC
actions have risked using regulatory authority not to promote
independent journalism, but to influence newsroom behavior, constrain
editorial decision-making, and encourage outcomes aligned with the
personal or political interests of elected officials,” the NHMC said. 

The group said it supports “genuine local journalism and robust
competition,” but said: 

policies that reshape the balance of power between station groups,
networks, and newsrooms cannot be separated from the broader regulatory
environment in which they operate. Several of the Commission’s recent
interventions—including coercive conditions attached to the
Skydance/Paramount transaction, and unlawful threats made to ABC and its
affiliate stations in September demanding they remove Jimmy Kimmel’s
show from the airwaves—illustrate how regulatory tools can be deployed
in ways that undermine media freedom and risk political interference in
programming and editorial decisions. 


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

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After NPR and PBS defunding, FCC receives call to take away station licenses "Leroy N. Soetoro" <leroysoetoro@americans-first.com> - 2025-12-24 20:05 +0000

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