Carr’s Deregulatory Leanings

Jessica Rosenworcel’s tenure as Chairwoman was often marked by proposed new regulations for broadcasters and, in other cases, even reinstated regulations.  She will leave behind several unfinished rulemakings – i.e., regulation of artificial intelligence in political ads, new treatment of some LPTV stations as full-power television stations, application processing prioritization to promote localism – each of which would have ushered in a slew of new regulatory requirements for broadcasters.

Chairman-designate Brendan Carr has the opposite view and has not been silent about it. His deregulatory leanings were best expressed in a mid-2024 dissent from new proposed regulations and helps to paint a picture of what may come:

“The FCC can continue down the path of keeping legacy regulations on the books that are plainly doing more harm than good—while patting ourselves on the backs for retaining rules that previous Commissions predicted would serve the interests of localism, diversity, and competition in the context of a media marketplace that no longer exists today. Or we can do something else—we can modernize our rules, we can eliminate the restraints on broadcasters that no longer make sense in today’s media marketplace, and we can unleash broadcasters to compete on level playing field with their Big Tech competitors. I think we have an obligation to do the latter.”

We are likely to see a fast start to “modernizing” regulations that no longer make sense, either by changing them or eliminating them.  Hang on for an interesting ride to come.