Knight Institute urges Congress to curtail FCC speech regulation authority

Narrowing the FCC's regulatory scope would fundamentally change how broadcast licenses are used as leverage during merger reviews and renewals. For major media conglomerates like Disney and Comcast, this shift reduces the risk of political interference in editorial decisions and corporate practices. In the broader ecosystem, these reforms aim to prevent the 'Hungarian model' of media capture where regulatory cudgels are used to suppress opposition voices. Industry strategists should monitor the progress of the JAWBONE Act in the 119th Congress as a signal for whether the agency's broad discretionary powers will finally be reined in by federal statute.

The FCC's regulatory posture toward broadcasters has intensified under Chairman Brendan Carr, creating urgency among media companies and civil liberties organizations. In February 2025, Reuters reported that the FCC's case against CBS for potential news distortion violations may go far beyond agency precedent, with communications lawyers and FCC scholars calling the move a sharp departure from historical practice. The Knight Institute's proposal to replace the public interest standard with enumerated powers directly responds to this escalation, seeking to remove the discretionary leverage that makes broadcast licenses vulnerable to political retaliation. On the legislative front, two bills in the 119th Congress aim to constrain the FCC's speech-related authority. The JAWBONE Act, introduced by Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden, would create a federal cause of action allowing individuals to sue government officials who illegally coerce broadcasters, social media platforms, or AI companies to remove content, with supporters including the ACLU, FIRE, and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Separately, the Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act of 2025, introduced by Senator Ben Ray Luján in March 2025, would amend the Communications Act to explicitly prohibit the FCC from revoking licenses or placing conditions on transaction approvals based on viewpoints. The bipartisan sponsorship of the JAWBONE Act signals growing discomfort with the agency's expanded interpretive reach across both parties. The business implications extend beyond editorial independence into M&A and corporate strategy. The JAWBONE Act's findings section explicitly identifies broadcasters and interactive computer service providers as speech intermediaries that can serve as chokepoints convenient for government targeting, a framing that resonates with recent FCC actions affecting major media companies. The bill's text prohibits any federal agency or employee from coercing a broadcaster or provider of an interactive computer service for the purpose of incentivizing content removal or suppression, which would directly affect how the FCC conducts merger reviews and license renewal proceedings involving companies like Disney, NBC, and . If either bill advances, the compliance burden for broadcast license holders would narrow significantly, potentially accelerating deal timelines and reducing the political risk premium that media companies currently price into regulatory strategy.