The FCC changed its website during a heated hearing with FCC chair Brendan Carr.
Carr was responding to questions from lawmakers about whether the agency was independent.
Carr told lawmakers “the FCC is not an independent agency” — within minutes, the FCC had scrubbed the word “independent” from its website, CNN reported.
CNN media analyst Sara Fischer said it only took the agency 25 minutes.
“So clearly they have made a decision to change their talking points around how they describe this agency,” Fischer said.
CNN host Dana Bash was surprised by the information, saying “Wow.”
“I should note it comes in a broader context of the Supreme Court basically saying they intend to allow the president to fire FTC commissioners,” she added. “Broadly speaking, agencies that were once considered independent don’t feel independent anymore.”
Fischer had actually screenshot the website, saying “I knew something like this was going to happen and it did.”
Carr signaled that President Donald Trump had the power to fire whoever he wants, a major question that the Supreme Court will decide that could overturn a 90-year-old decision to protect heads of federal independent agencies from firing by the president.
“And one of the things that the justices were talking about in the questioning was whether independent agencies should be independent. But, I mean, it does feel like something out of 1984 for the documents of the government to change after someone says it. It’s really it’s a stunning thing in itself,” CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere said.
Carr was scolded by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) after the agency boss threatened to pull comedian Jimmy Kimmel off air over a joke he made following MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk’s death. Carr had effectively threatened to pull ABC’s broadcast license if the network did not take Kimmel off the air.
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