GOP FCC Commissioner Says Agency Is Fast-Tracking George Soros Plan To Acquire 200 Radio Stations Before Election

A GOP member of the Federal Communications Commission is claiming that billionaire investor George Soros’s firm is receiving preferential treatment from the federal government in order to purchase more than 200 radio stations across 40 markets in the lead-up to the November election.The commissioner, Brendan Carr, says the FCC is poised to create a new “shortcut” to aid Mr. Soros’s acquisition of the stations. During an appearance before the House Oversight Committee, Mr. Carr was asked about the Soros Fund Management Company’s bid to purchase a large stake in the radio company Audacy in April, when the firm bought $400 million worth of debt from America’s second-largest operator of radio stations. Mr. Carr says the FCC typically would have national security agencies review the bid given that Mr. Soros is a foreign national, and the government takes a particular interest in protecting American media from foreign ownership. Instead, the FCC will take an up-or-down vote without that review “in the near future,” Mr. Carr says.“I think what’s interesting about it is that the FCC here is not following its normal process for reviewing a transaction. We have established over a number of years, one way in which you can get approval from the FCC when you have in excess of 25 percent foreign ownership, which this transaction does,” Mr. Carr said during questioning by a member of the Oversight Committee. “It seems to me that the FCC is poised to create — for the first time — an entirely new shortcut.”Mr. Carr — who was appointed to the FCC by President Trump — said a typical review of a foreign national taking control of a substantial portion of an American media company should take anywhere from three to six months, though the FCC is poised to approve the sale — without the national security review — before the election. It is confusing, Mr. Carr says, because the FCC would likely have no issue with Mr. Soros taking control of a portion of Audacy. “The full commission itself has never signed off on a shortcut like this. What we usually do is we require people to file a petition with us, we bring in national security agencies, they can review the foreign ownership,” Mr. Carr said. “It’s probably no big deal here, but we review that foreign ownership and then we vote. Here, they’re trying to do something that’s never been done before at the commission level.”A spokesman for Mr. Soros’s Open Society Foundation did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about Mr. Carr’s claims. The chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel — who was nominated to her position by President Obama in 2011 and renominated by Trump in 2017 — similarly did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Concerns about Mr. Soros’s bid to buy a stake in Audacy were first raised in April by Senator Cruz. Mr. Cruz, in his role as the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said it was critical to protect Americans from possible foreign influence in the 2024 election via foreign ownership of a sizable media company.“Considering the large number of stations involved, the presence of foreign ownership interests in excess of limits specified in federal law, and the deal’s timing in the final run-up to the Presidential election, I argued that a thorough vetting by the full Commission was both an expected duty of the officeholder and necessary to protect the interests of the American public,” Mr. Cruz wrote in a letter to two FCC commissioners.

GOP FCC Commissioner Says Agency Is Fast-Tracking George Soros Plan To Acquire 200 Radio Stations Before Election

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