Not ‘deregulation’ but heavy-handed regulation at the Trump FCC

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has cagily created a new and coercive technique for operating outside the agency’s established statutes and procedures to attack corporate decisions he and Donald Trump do not like. That technique is to use its powers—or the threat thereof—to micromanage the activities of companies without needing to follow the niceties of commission votes and judicial review. Prime targets are media company editorial decisions and open opportunity—or diversity, equity, and inclusion—initiatives. The Project 2025 chapter on the FCC, written by its new chairman, Brendan Carr, concludes, “The Commission should focus its efforts on creating a market-friendly regulatory environment that fosters innovation and competition.” In a flurry of early activity, Chairman Carr has chosen instead to achieve political goals by increasing the regulatory reach of the agency to intrude into corporate decisions to achieve political goals.