Former Officials: FCC’s Independence ‘Obliterated’ Under Chairman Carr

Former regulators and policy advocates accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr of having “obliterated” the FCC’s credibility as an independent, expert regulatory body. Experts examined whether the FCC could still serve the public interest or whether, as some argued, it had become too politically captured to function as an independent regulator. Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who led the agency under President Obama, said the FCC’s statutory independence had collapsed under Chairman Carr. “The FCC was designed to exist as an amphibian between the administration and Congress,” he said. “But when an authoritarian president steps in and overturns that balance, there are consequences.”