FCC Chairman Warns Broadcast Networks Against Covering ‘Fake Polls’ Ahead of the Midterms

Less than two weeks out from the midterm elections, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, is warning broadcast networks against airing what he calls “fake” polls designed to bolster one candidate over another or discourage voters from casting a ballot.President Trump has long complained about polls he dislikes, arguing that they are skewed and, in some cases, designed to discourage voters. In a post on Truth Social in August, the president wrote, “THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE!”On Wednesday, Mr. Carr took to X to warn broadcast networks that the communications regulator is watching. “There has been a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm,” Mr. Carr said. “Broadcasters are prohibited by the terms of their federal licenses from engaging in News Distortion or promoting Broadcast Hoaxes.”The FCC’s news distortion policy prevents broadcast networks from intentionally airing false or slanted reports about “significant events.” Mr. Carr added that “if broadcasters believe they should provide viewers with additional context and information about polls they have covered, they can now take those actions consistent with FCC regulations.”While questions about poll accuracy is a recurring issue during election years, a fellow for free expression and technology at the libertarian Cato Institute, David Inserra, in an email statement to The New York Sun says that Mr. Carr’s comments are a “wild abuse of the news distortion and broadcast hoax rules and the whole public interest standard.”“The FCC believes it has the ability to judge the worthiness of polls, determine proper journalistic ethics, and punish lawful speech, all incredible overreaches,” Mr. Inserra writes. “It is long past time that Congress and the Courts rein in the FCC’s ability to censor and chill speech disfavored by whatever administration is in power.”The sole Democrat-appointed FCC commissioner, Anna Gomez, wrote on X that pollsters who “intentionally mislead the public should answer for it,” but said broadcasters who “report publicly available polling data should never be punished when a poll is wrong.”“FCC rules on news distortion or hoaxes do not apply to a station that reports this data in good faith,” she said.This year questions about the accuracy of polls have been raised in several races, especially after the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, narrowly won his primary even though polls appeared to show he was headed for a double-digit victory.Some pollsters have defended the industry, arguing that with primary elections it is harder to predict which voters will turn out to cast ballots. However, in at least two instances, groups have admitted to producing fabricated data. In August, an organization, Median Strategies, published a poll that showed Los Angeles’ mayor, Karen Bass, leading her left-wing primary opponent, Nithya Raman, by double digits. Median Strategies’ poll was reported by publications such as the California Post and the Los Angeles Times. However, the group, which was run by a recent college graduate, Rahil Prakash, later said that its data were fabricated and designed to see “if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily.” Mr. Prakash also produced fake polling data on races in Wisconsin and Nevada. On Tuesday, another group that claimed to be a polling firm, Wedgewood Polls, wrote in a statement that it “fabricated numbers” as part of an “experimental project” to “demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry.”Wedgewood said that “despite having no history, formal credentials, or real data behind the vast majority” of its polls, its data was added to “major polling aggregators.” A former Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, Mallory McMorrow, reacted to the statement, saying that because of Wedgewood’s numbers, donations to her campaign “dried up” and “reporters hounded me with calls to drop out.”Mr. Carr has previously said that existing statutes require broadcast networks to provide fair coverage, and has warned that airing what he called “partisan circus[es]” could cost them their broadcast licenses. In July, he appeared to threaten ABC News and NBC News after the networks declined to carry Mr. Trump’s speech regarding allegations of foreign interference in the 2020 election. The FCC is actively investigating ABC’s “The View” over allegations it violated the commission’s equal time rule when it interviewed the Texas Democratic Senate nominee, James Talarico, without inviting his Democratic primary opponent to appear on the show as well. ABC argues that the show qualifies as a news program and is exempt from the equal time rule. The commission also ordered eight ABC-owned stations to submit applications to renew their licenses years ahead of schedule. Mr. Carr has said the order came after ABC’s parent company, the Walt Disney Company, failed to hand over sufficient documents as part of the agency’s investigation into its DEI practices. However, critics argued the timing was suspicious as it came days after the network’s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, made a joke about First Lady Melania Trump having a “glow” like an “expectant widow.” That comment was made just days before a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. ABC is suing the FCC, arguing that the order was retaliatory as the Trump administration “disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”

FCC Chairman Warns Broadcast Networks Against Covering ‘Fake Polls’ Ahead of the Midterms

FCC Chairman Warns Broadcast Networks Against Covering ‘Fake Polls’ Ahead of the Midterms

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