Freedom and Liberty

[Trinityz1]

FCC Chair Stays Mum On Efforts To Deplatform Conservative Networks; Accused Trump Of ‘An Assault On Free Expression’

https://dailycaller.com/2021/02/23/jessica-rosenworcel-fox-news-fcc/

Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has yet to comment on a pressure campaign by two House Democrats to deplatform conservative TV networks.
In 2017, Rosenworcel decried a tweet from President Trump suggesting that broadcasting licenses for NBC News be reviewed.
On Monday, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jim McNerny submitted letters to 12 cable and streaming pressuring them to stop airing Fox News, Newsmax and OANN.
Also on Monday, Eshoo urged the White House to nominate Rosenworcel the permanent FCC chair.

On Monday, the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent out two letters: one urging cable and streaming providers to deplatform three conservative news networks, and another calling on President Joe Biden to make Jessica Rosenworcel the permanent chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Rosenworcel would seemingly have some say over the proposal from the first letter, sent out by California Rep. Anna Eshoo, but she has so far stayed silent on the issue. Brendan Carr, a Republican FCC commissioner, called Monday for his fellow commissioners to publicly denounce the letter.

Rosenworcel’s silence is a reversal of sorts from 2017 when the Democratic FCC commissioner criticized President Donald Trump for an “assault on free expression” for proposing a review of broadcast licenses for NBC News affiliates.

“I don’t think that the government should be in the business of substituting its judgment for programming licensees,” Rosenworcel said in a 2017 interview on CNN, according to The Federalist.

“I think it’s essential for newsgathering that the government isn’t dictating what content should and shouldn’t be on the airwaves.”

Rosenworcel, who was first appointed to the FCC in 2012, called on her fellow commissioners in the CNN interview to “make clear that they support the First Amendment” by affirming that the agency would not revoke TV licenses at the whim of the president.

“History won’t be kind to silence,” Rosenworcel said.