NAB's LeGeyt Affirms Collaboration On 1A Protections

National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the trade group will continue working with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and other policymakers to protect broadcasters’ First Amendment rights and strengthen local stations’ ability to deliver trusted news and information.

In a statement issued October 27, LeGeyt responded to Gomez’s October 22 letter calling for a more forceful industry defense of local stations. “We appreciate Commissioner Gomez’s recognition of the value of local broadcasters and her commitment to the First Amendment principles that underpin a free press,” LeGeyt wrote. “We will continue working with her and all policymakers to protect broadcasters’ rights and strengthen local stations’ ability to deliver trusted news and information to the communities they serve.”

Gomez had urged the NAB to take a harder public stand against what she described as a coordinated administration effort to pressure stations, particularly over election-related coverage. While crediting the association for opposing the FCC’s early license-renewal order, she said the volume of that response “has not yet matched the scale of what your members are facing.”

Her letter specifically cited FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s suggestion that stations airing political polling results unfavorable to the Trump administration could face investigations under the agency’s news-distortion or broadcast-hoax rules. She also pointed to recent Media Bureau guidance changes involving the bona fide news-interview exemption under Section 315 and a staff reinterpretation of which political spenders qualify for the lowest unit charge, noting that neither change had been adopted by the full Commission.

The exchange comes less than a week before the midterm elections, with control of Congress at stake. In August a divided Fourth Circuit panel set aside the Media Bureau’s March 30 notice on the license-renewal rule, but the Supreme Court stayed that ruling in September, leaving the expanded rule in effect for now.

The NAB has continued substantial lobbying activity in Washington on related issues. It spent $2.7 million in the third quarter, a 6% increase from a year earlier, driven in part by its push for the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which passed the House in September by unanimous consent and remains pending in the Senate. The association has also lobbied on media ownership regulations and against proposals for a radio performance royalty.