Trump's FCC pick Brendan Carr's warning to Saturday Night Live and 'biased' TV networks

Donald Trump's prime to caput the Federal Communications Commission slammed Saturday Night Live for featuring Kamala Harris and has warned TV networks to beryllium cautious of 'bias.'

Brendan Carr, who is the apical Republican connected the autarkic committee that oversees radio, television, wire, satellite, and cablegram crossed the U.S., besides has often targeted Big Tech, accusing them of censorship.

Trump called his prime a 'warrior for Free Speech.' Carr has embraced Trump's positions connected societal media, tech and tv companies.

'Commissioner Carr is simply a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held backmost our Economy,' Trump said successful a statement.

'He volition extremity the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and guarantee that the FCC delivers for agrarian America.'

Trump primitively nominated Carr to the FCC successful 2017 during his archetypal word successful office. 

Carr made headlines 2 days earlier the predetermination erstwhile helium claimed that Harris' quality connected Saturday Night Live violated the 'equal time' rule. 

'This has each the appearances of, astatine slightest immoderate enactment astatine NBC, astatine SNL, making wide that they wanted to weigh-in successful favour of 1 campaigner earlier the election,' Carr said then. 

'NBC has structured this successful a mode that's plainly designed to evade the FCC's rules,' Carr said. 'We're talking 50 hours earlier Election Day starts, without immoderate announcement to different candidates, arsenic acold arsenic I tin tell.' 

Carr has besides backed Trump's telephone for licenses to beryllium stripped from each 3 large broadcast networks for sum choices that helium has denounced.

NBC aboriginal informed the FCC that Harris had appeared connected SNL 'without charge' for 1 infinitesimal and 30 seconds. That triggered the model for different campaigns to petition clip from network. 

On that Sunday, NBC gave the Trump run clip during its NASCAR and Sunday Night Football sum successful effect to Harris' SNL appearance. 

Broadcast networks are not licensed by the national government. Individual stations are. But the large 3 networks – NBC, ABC and CBS – ain 80 stations among them. Each presumption is simply a nett center, and a unit point, for the networks. 

Carr could drastically reshape the autarkic agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it arsenic a governmental limb for the right, analysts told The New York Times. 

They predicted Carr would trial the ineligible limits of the agency’s powerfulness by pushing to oversee companies similar Meta and Google, mounting up a fierce conflict with Silicon Valley. 

Carr besides wrote the FCC conception of Project 2025, the docket that the blimpish Heritage Foundation sketched retired for a 2nd Trump term.

In it, Carr argued that the bureau should besides modulate the largest tech companies, specified arsenic Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft. 

Trump disavowed Project 2025 during the campaign.

Earlier this month, Carr attacked Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft successful a posting connected X for playing 'central roles successful the censorship cartel,' which helium said 'must beryllium dismantled.' Billionaire Elon Musk — who owns X, advises Trump and backed Carr for FCC chairmanship — reposted his claims and announcement.

Carr has backed national authorities that would punish societal media companies that artifact oregon suspend users for their 'viewpoints,' an allegation that Musk and different conservatives person lodged against the tech giants.

Carr besides supported a instrumentality passed by Congress to prohibition TikTok.

He graduated from Georgetown University and earned his instrumentality grade from the Catholic University of America. 

He joined the FCC arsenic a staffer successful 2012. After moving arsenic the agency's wide counsel, helium was nominated to service arsenic a commissioner by Trump — and was again nominated by President Joe Biden.

The FCC has 5 members and regulates the telecommunications industry.