Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr will brief the Republican Study Committee on Wednesday about George Soros’s “unprecedented” scheme to take over 200 Audacy radio stations.
Carr will detail how the FCC, under Democrat leadership, approved a license deal delivering leftist billionaire Soros over 200 Audacy radio stations.
Soros reportedly took foreign investment to make his bid for the 200 Audacy radio stations, which cover 40 media markets, and asked the commission to make an exception to the normal review process.
This is reportedly the first time such a deal was fast-tracked without a national security review process, which normally takes at least a year.
Carr said in a statement last September opposing the move:
The Commission’s decision today is unprecedented. Never before has the Commission voted to approve the transfer of a broadcast license—let alone the transfer of broadcast licenses for over 200 radio stations across more than 40 markets—without following the requirements and procedures codified in federal law. Not once. And yet the Commission breaks this new ground today without seeking public comment on altering our established regulations, without actually changing the rules on the books, and without seeking the feedback of other federal agencies with relevant equities.
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Federal law requires applicants with excessive foreign ownership to file a petition for declaratory ruling at the same time that they seek FCC approval for the relevant license transfers, they must then complete that process before the FCC can approve the assignment of licenses, and that process must enable Executive Branch agencies with national security and specific policy expertise to weigh in.
Carr continued, “Did they obtain approval from the FCC for their excessive foreign ownership? No, they did not. Did the Applicants afford the Executive Branch agencies with national security and relevant policy expertise an opportunity to consider their application as well as the source and amount of foreign investment? No, they did not.”
“First, I just have to point out: a Commission eager to fast-track a billion dollar broadcast media reorganization, disregarding foreign ownership concerns,” FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington noted in a statement at the time, “is the same Commission that has gone back to the well several times to impose and re-impose foreign sponsorship identification rules on our smallest independent broadcast license holders every time they place local church content on the air.”
Simington added, “Just saying.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3
