FCC chair Brendan Carr warns broadcasters against airing "fake polls" before midterms
Carr says airing fabricated polls could break broadcast license rules. Former FCC chairs call the warning an attempt at censorship.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr warned broadcasters on Wednesday that airing "fake polls" could violate the terms of their federal licenses, according to Ars Technica, Bleeding Cool News and Gizmodo.
In a post on X, Carr wrote that "there has been a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls" during the election season. He said "many journalists and broadcasters" had aired them "without regard to basic journalistic ethics." He added that broadcasters "are prohibited by the terms of their federal licenses from engaging in News Distortion or promoting Broadcast Hoaxes."
The outlets disagree on whether Carr named anyone. Bleeding Cool News reported that Carr called out ABC News, NBC News and CBS News. Ars Technica reported that the post did not mention any specific fake polls or broadcasters, and Gizmodo said he offered no specific examples.
Ars Technica linked the warning to a hoax revealed this week. A group called Wedgewood Polls said it had published fabricated data "to test whether media outlets, aggregators, and commentators would report on data without verifying the source." Ars reported that the aggregators FiftyPlusOne, VoteHub and The New York Times had used its polls, and all three said they had vetted the firm first. The Times said it used 15 Wedgewood polls in state and congressional-district races, but never in its averages of Trump's approval rating or national polls on control of Congress. Ars also noted that none of those aggregators is a broadcast station.
The warning matters because broadcast licenses are involved. Gizmodo noted that the FCC regulates stations on the free airwaves but does not have the same oversight of cable TV. A group of former FCC officials, including former chairmen Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, and Mark Fowler, a Republican, said in a statement reported by Ars Technica:
“Good-faith reporting on public polls—even ones that turn out to be made up—is not a violation of the FCC's news distortion or hoax rules. And the FCC has zero authority to dictate editorial decisions.”
Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner on the current FCC, wrote that FCC rules on news distortion or hoaxes "do not apply to a station that reports this data in good faith," Ars Technica reported.
Both Gizmodo and Bleeding Cool News tied the warning to Trump's polling numbers. Both cited a New York Times/Siena poll putting his approval at 36 percent. Gizmodo, citing Reuters, put it at 31 percent.
Several things are still unclear. The sources do not say which polls or broadcasts Carr had in mind, beyond the networks Bleeding Cool News named. They also do not say whether the FCC plans any action against a station.
