FCC Chair Criticizes Comcast for ‘News Distortion’ After White House Complains About MSNBC Coverage

FCC chairman Brendan Carr criticized Comcast for “news distortion” over MSNBC’s decision not to carry the White House’s press briefing on deportations live on Wednesday. The criticism came in the form of a quote-tweet of White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung, who said it was “shameful” that CNN and MSNBC didn’t carry the press briefing live.

“Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man,'” Carr, whose FCC is investigating Comcast for “promotion of DEI,” said on X of the man who was sent to El Salvador in March despite a court order preventing his deportation.

“Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it,” Carr continued.

Comcast did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The move is the latest alignment with the Trump administration as Carr has opened investigations into CBS News’ interview with Kamala Harris, the funding of PBS and NPR and DEI programs, all topics on which Trump has aired his very public frustrations on social media.

On Sunday, Trump reiterated his desire to see CBS News “punished” and said he had “hope” that Carr “will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior.”

There is no evidence that CBS News engaged in illegal behavior.

At the end of January, Carr ordered an investigation into the sponsorships of NPR and PBS stations, suggesting they may be in violation of government rules by acknowledging major donors on-air. He seeks to justify revoking the funding the outlets get from the federal government, a major part of the playbook for destroying NPR and PBS laid out in Project 2025. Though Trump claimed during the election that he had no ties to the group, which aims to radically remake U.S. government in starkly right wing, Christian and racist terms, his administration is packed with Project 2025 veterans — including Carr, who wrote the the group’s communications document.

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