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Hearing follows months of the Trump Administration’s abuse of FCC regulatory authorities and attempts to control the free press—including efforts to censor Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and others.

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) yesterday joined House and Senate Democrats in hosting a spotlight forum on the Trump Administration’s unprecedented efforts to use the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and government authority to chill First Amendment-protected speech and independent, fact-based news reporting. The forum featured testimony from Anna Gomez, FCC Commissioner; Connor Gaffney, Counsel at Protect Democracy; Robert Corn-Revere, Chief Counsel at Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE); and Oliver Darcy, Founder and author at Status.

Watch Rep. Scanlon’s line of questioning HERE. 

“While Speaker Johnson has closed down the House of Representatives for the week, I was pleased to join a hearing convened by Senators Blumenthal and Warren and Congressman Jamie Raskin to examine how the Trump White House is using the federal government, and particularly the FCC, to suppress criticism of this administration,” said Rep. Scanlon. “We heard testimony from First Amendment experts, including FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, that detailed Chairman Carr's unlawful weaponization of the FCC against media companies to silence the administration’s critics. Testimony highlighted the recent suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and described instances in which the threat of FCC action has coerced broadcasters into canceling programs and even paying millions of dollars to the Trump Presidential Library Fund. More broadly, the experts also examined the impact of such censorship on Americans' First Amendment rights, compared it to authoritarian regimes in Hungary and elsewhere, and discussed what Congress and the public can do to oppose the Trump administration's efforts to restrict free speech.”

Read more about the expert testimony below:

“This Administration seems intent on using its vast power to punish anyone who dares to speak up and disagree with its agenda. Broadcasters across the country are facing an impossible choice: comply with this Administration’s demands or risk a financially debilitating investigation and the threat of license revocation,” wrote Gomez in her opening statement. “If we allow the government to decide which voices survive and which ones are silenced, we lose the very foundation of a free press, and with it the democratic principles it seeks to protect.”

Gomez’s opening statement (as prepared for delivery) can be found here. Video of Gomez’s opening statement is available here.

“A free, robust, and diverse press is critical for a democratic society. Congress recognized this nearly a century ago when it created the FCC with the Communications Act. Accordingly, Congress created an independent agency to be free of political capture whose powers were to be exercised in the public interest,” wrote Gaffney in his opening statement. “This design has functioned fairly well for the last ninety years. But the FCC under Chairman Carr has shown how this power and trust can be abused, and most concerningly, how easily this power can be wielded to undermine our democratic institutions.”

Gaffney’s opening statement (as prepared for delivery) can be found here. Video of Gaffney’s opening statement is available here.

“Over the past ten months we have witnessed an extraordinary number of formal and informal assertions of power over the broadcast media and the national broadcast networks. Carr has described his actions as business as usual for the FCC. He has said that broadcasters are licensed under the Communications Act to serve the ‘public interest,’ and that he is merely holding them to that commitment. None of this behavior is normal, authorized by the Communications Act, or permitted by the First Amendment,” wrote Corn-Revere in his opening statement.

Corn-Revere’s opening statement (as prepared for delivery) can be found here. Video of Corn-Revere’s opening statement is available here.

“In all my years reporting on this beat, I have never seen free speech and a free press come under such brazen assault. Ironically, the attacks today are coming directly from the President of the United States and his MAGA allies, the same people who campaigned on promises to end ‘censorship,’ ‘legalize comedy,’ and ‘bring back free speech.’ Instead, nine months into this Administration, fact-based reporting and even late-night jokes have become targets of an aggrieved President, with Trump wielding his office to bully critics into submission and chill their speech. The message he has sent is clear: cross me and pay the price,” wrote Darcy in his opening statement. “The chilling of speech is one of the first signs that a democracy is beginning to decay. That is not hyperbole. Strongmen thrive when speech is stifled—and that is precisely the environment Trump and his allies are working to create.”

Darcy’s opening statement (as prepared for delivery) can be found here. Video of Darcy’s opening statement is available here.

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