Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr does not think there is any reason for concern about a crop of new taxpayer-funded ads supporting President Trump, calling them a “normal PSA.”
On Wednesday, Carr addressed questions about the promos that started running last week supporting the president. Most of the questions revolved around the White House using taxpayer money to produce the ads – running around $2.5 million for the spots according to CNN. Carr, who was appointed by Trump, didn’t see any difference between the Trump ads and regular PSAs.
“I don’t think there’s anything unique or different about it, other than being a normal PSA: the types of PSAs that the government naturally and normally runs,” Carr said.
He added: “What I have seen is that these are normal force PSAs that the government runs – Republicans and Democrats routinely – and there doesn’t strike me as anything at all out of the ordinary. And there’s nothing in there that strikes me that merit any sort of FCC review or any liability on any broadcaster for running a regular, normal PSA ad.”
The appearance of the ads prompted watchdog group Public Citizen to file a lawsuit that claimed the Trump administration violated “the federal law against using taxpayer funds to finance propaganda.” The complaint pushed to have the ads removed from the air by broadcasters.
“That the Trump administration not only failed to acknowledge and investigate last week’s illegal ad, but instead doubled down and released a second piece of taxpayer-funded political propaganda during the mass-viewing moment of Sunday football is appalling and alarming,” Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. “These illegal ads should immediately be pulled from the air, and the White House’s many apparent violations of the law should be investigated.”
The White House explained that the Obama administration made ads to promote the Affordable Care Act as a precedent. Carr also handwaved the Public Citizen lawsuit and statement.
“Activist groups like Public Citizen, there’s groups on the left that have long worked and pushed to weaponize the FCC’s license renewal process,” Carr said. “I’m sure that they will do it again in the future.”
The ads first aired on Fox News last week and amid a number of NFL and college football games. They range from making claims that “America will never be a communist country” to UFC’s Dana White praising Trump as the “toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”
