Federal Communications Fee chair Brendan Carr on Thursday opened a probe into range practices at Verizon and raised the telecommunications firm’s ongoing effort to buy Frontier Communications.
Carr, a Republican designated by President Donald Trump final month, earlier this month informed NBC Information-parent Comcast he was opening the same probe into the corporate’s promotion of range, fairness and inclusion packages. Verizon is awaiting FCC approval for its $9.6 billion buy of Frontier.
“In order to aid the FCC’s resolution of these matters, please reach out to the agency personnel that have been working on Verizon’s pending transactions at the FCC,” Carr wrote. “They are the FCC personnel most familiar with Verizon’s operations due to their merger review activity.”
Carr criticized Verizon for its continued promotion of range, fairness and inclusion packages.
Verizon mentioned in a press release, “we are aware of the chairman’s concerns. We look forward to engaging with the FCC staff on this issue. Verizon has always focused on having the best talent to deliver the best experiences to our customers.”
Carr mentioned in his letter to Comcast earlier this month that the fee would take “fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act… including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI.”
Shortly after taking workplace on Jan. 20, Trump — who designated Carr as chair — issued sweeping govt orders to dismantle range, fairness and inclusion packages in america and pressured the non-public sector to hitch the initiative.
Carr is investigating quite a few media corporations.
The FCC is reviewing whether or not a CBS Information “60 Minutes” interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris violates “news distortion” guidelines.
Paramount is in search of FCC approval for an $8.4-billion merger with Skydance Media.
In January, Carr reinstated complaints about how Walt Disney’s ABC Information moderated the pre-election TV debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump and NBC letting Harris seem on “Saturday Night Live” earlier than the election.
The FCC, an impartial federal company, points eight-year licenses to particular person broadcast stations, not networks.
