FOR RELEASE: March 21, 2025
Contact: Richard T. Kaplar
The Media Institute
703-506-8030
Vienna, Va., March 21, 2025 – The Media Institute filed reply comments today with the Federal Communications Commission reaffirming the First Amendment right of broadcasters to employ editorial discretion in their reporting and editing operations.
The comments came in response to a complaint filed with the FCC alleging that CBS Broadcasting Inc. had engaged in “news distortion” in its editing of an interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris that aired on Face the Nation and 60 Minutes in October 2024.
“The prospect of the FCC investigating the routine editorial practices of a broadcast network and passing judgment on its editorial content raises substantial First Amendment concerns that must be addressed forthrightly,” the Institute wrote.
The FCC is precluded from engaging in censorship of news content not only by the explicit language of the First Amendment (“Cogress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”), but statutorily by the Communications Act of 1934. The complaint against CBS relied on the FCC’s narrowly drawn and seldom-used “news distortion” policy, which the Commission generally has refrained from applying to routine editing decisions.
“The FCC simply cannot, and should not, set itself up to be an overseer of countless editorial decisions by news organizations, nor as an arbiter of ‘news distortion,’ however that term might come to be applied,” the Institute said.
The Media Institute strongly urged the Commission to dismiss the present complaint “and future complaints of its ilk that are little more than thinly veiled attempts at media intimidation.”
The Media Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization specializing in communications policy and the First Amendment. Visit the Institute at www.mediainstitute.org.
# # #