FCC Chairman Brendan Carr plans to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, he told Status, placing the federal media regulator in the same Washington ballroom as outlets he’s investigated — and just weeks after bragging how Donald Trump is “winning” against the “fake news media.”
“I am planning on attending,” Carr told the outlet.
Carr said he was not sitting with CBS News, which has invited Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top Trump adviser Stephen Miller. However, Status reported that the organization’s parent company, David Ellison’s Paramount, has invited Carr to one of its tables.
A Paramount spokesperson did not respond to an immediate request for comment. An FCC spokesperson did not respond to a query on whether Carr has accepted the company’s invitation.
During his tenure as the Trump administration’s top media enforcement officer, Carr has threatened media and entertainment companies, often over policies or content that conflict with Trump’s priorities.
He launched an investigation last week into ABC’s “The View” for potentially violating its equal-time rule over its interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, and he has said a longstanding precedent affording shows like “The View” and “The Late Show” exceptions to the rule may no longer hold. He has also launched probes into NPR, PBS and other media companies since he became the agency’s chairman last year.
Some of Carr’s threats have prompted action: ABC’s parent company, Disney, suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel last September after Carr threatened the company over comments the host made about the killing of Charlie Kirk.
News of Carr’s attendance comes after more than 250 journalists sent a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Association on Monday urging it to use its annual dinner on Saturday to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Donald Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.” They listed several examples of Trump’s attacks on the media during his second term, including Carr’s investigations.
