from the speak-up dept
When Biden FCC boss Jessica Rosenworcel stepped down, we noted how she couldn’t be bothered to even mention that terrible things were brewing at her agency. Same for Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who recently decided to sheepishly step down without, again, so much as acknowledging the dangerous and radical zealotry Brendan Carr has been engaged in over at the agency.
This kind of sheepishness is pretty standard for political careerists who don’t want to upset their chances at future political office or a comfy revolving door think tank gig. They do their best not to rock the boat and express actual opinion lest it offend industry. But in the age of deadly authoritarianism, silence is a fatal form of cowardice and complicity.
That’s why current Dem Commissioner Anna Gomez has been refreshing. She’s had no problem calling out Brendan Carr for his dangerous abuse of FCC authority. Carr’s been abusing office power to illegally bully companies for not being sexist and racist enough, or trampling the First Amendment by threatening media companies that do accurate journalism critical of Trump policy.
Carr’s a radical zealot the likes of which the FCC has never seen, and Gomez hasn’t been afraid to make that clear. Speaking at a Center for Democracy and Technology event last week, Gomez further made it clear that Carr is a hot mess and an unprecedented threat to free expression:
“Since the founding of our country, the First Amendment has protected our fundamental
right to speak freely and hold power to account. Today, the greatest threat to that freedom
is coming from our own government. Silencing dissenting voices is not a show of strength—it’s a sign of fear. We must continue to speak out against this growing campaign of censorship and control before this dangerous new normal becomes the status quo.”
Carr has refused to let Gomez take trips on the FCC dime, so she’s attending these events out of pocket. This moment in U.S. history is showing you who people truly are, and Gomez is, thankfully, an outspoken fighter on the right side of history.
With Democrat Geoffrey Starks planning to leave the commission soon, Trumpism will soon have a 3-1 FCC majority, and Gomez is set to be the only Democrat on the FCC for the foreseeable future (assuming she isn’t illegally fired like the two Democratic FTC commissioners). While she lacks the voting authority to stop some of the dumber policy Carr has planned, her voice and platform matters all the same.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, anna gomez, brendan carr, censorship, fcc, free speech
