Why the ‘hoax rule’ should make a comeback

After aggressively criticizing government censorship during the Biden administration, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is getting sucked into his own free-speech imbroglio. Chairman Carr has come under bipartisan accusations that he invoked the news distortion rule—an obscure FCC policy against deliberate misrepresentations in broadcast journalism—as a way to threaten networks over a controversial Jimmy Kimmel monologue, and a “60 Minutes” interview of Kamala Harris. The Senate is yanking him into an oversight hearing in December, during which Democrats, at least, are expected to call him on the carpet. The whole thing has become such a mess that a group of FCC veterans—dominated by former Republican commissioners—now want to do away with the agency’s news distortion policy altogether. In an FCC petition, the group proffers an intriguing proposal: The agency should repeal its news distortion rule, and just rely on the one that prohibits broadcast hoaxes instead.