FCC Probes 'Paid Commercials' On Non-Comms

The  newly appointed chairman of the FCC has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS over their alleged “airing of commercials,” and suggested that the public broadcasters could be at risk of losing their federal funding, reports The Washington Post.

“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Brendan Carr wrote to the heads of both organizations Wednesday. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

In the letter, Carr said Congress is “actively considering whether to stop” funding NPR and PBS programming, which it has done since the 1967 passage of the Public Broadcasting Act. The query into the broadcasters could be relevant to such funding considerations, he said.

According to NPR, the broadcasting organization receives about 1 percent of its annual budget directly from the federal government; its member stations on average get 10 percent of their funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which stewards congressional money. PBS told The Washington Post that 16 percent of its budget comes from the government.

An “underwriting announcement” is an acknowledgment by broadcasting stations of who their sponsors are. Under FCC guidelines, a station can share a sponsor’s name, a general description of what they do and where they’re located. Unlike a typical commercial spot, these announcements are supposed to stop short of a “call to action” telling or trying to entice audiences to buy a product or service.

Anna Gomez

In a public statement shared Thursday, NPR chief executive Katherine Maher defended the organization’s practices, saying they comply with federal regulations. “We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules,” she said.

As of Friday afternoon, the office of FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, had yet to receive a copy of Carr’s letter, despite multiple requests to the chairman’s office.

“This appears to be yet another Administration effort to weaponize the power of the FCC,” Gomez said in an X post Thursday. “The FCC has no business intimidating and silencing broadcast media.”