FCC commissioner: 'We don't have the authority' to retaliate against broadcasters

(The Hill) Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Anna Gomez said Thursday that the independent regulatory agency does not “have the authority” to retaliate against broadcasters over what they choose to run on air.

“That’s exactly the point, because we don’t have the authority to do this, because it’s against the law. We would not be able to actually take that final action, because on appeal, the FCC would be wrong on the facts and the law if, in fact, it retaliated against the … broadcasters, the local licensees, because of what they air,” Gomez, an attorney who has served at the FCC for two years, said during an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront.”

“So the threats are the point, and the capitulation is so disappointing, because what we are doing is eroding, little by little, the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech on which our democracy relies,” she told host Erin Burnett. “We need the fourth estate to push back against the likes of me, to hold me and the government to account.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fcc-commissioner-don-t-authority-115942318.html