Carr, Gomez split over FCC warning to broadcasters on election polls

The Federal Communications Commission’s October open meeting ended with eight unanimous votes, none of them aimed at broadcasters. Broadcast news came at the press conferences afterward, where Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez gave opposing accounts of the risks a station faces by putting an election poll on the air five days before the midterms.

Carr, who recently warned broadcasters about airing results from what he called fake polls, said the warning applied to “fabricated surveys” rather than routine coverage.

“All we said was there has been a real increase in entirely fake polls and suppression polls. We’ve given the examples of two of them. And there was nothing that we said about good faith reporting on existing polls,” said Carr.

Gomez, the only Democrat on the three-member commission, said the two rules Carr invoked, news distortion and broadcast hoax, cannot reach a station that reports a poll in good faith. She also questioned what the warning was meant to accomplish.

“I suspect the goal here is the threat itself, a way to spook stations into self-censoring because the law gives the FCC so little to work with. There is not much it can actually do and the threat only works if the stations let it,” said Gomez.

The meeting’s agenda covered spectrum for satellite direct-to-device service and drones, equipment testing, national security rules for international carriers, rural broadband funding, accessibility and a Lifeline fraud penalty.

Reporters also pressed both commissioners on the FCC’s review of Disney’s broadcast licenses, and Carr opened his remarks with recent Supreme Court action on political advertising rates.

The poll warning

A Bloomberg News reporter asked Carr whether anyone had presented evidence that the polls in question had aired on broadcast networks.

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“What we’ve seen potentially newly this election cycle is the emergence of, and this is what I said in the post, entirely fake polls,” said Carr.

Carr named polling outlets that he said were making up results. He said politicians in both parties had complained that amplification of those polls hurt their ability to raise money and make their case in primaries and general elections.

“And so what we’re doing is we are reminding broadcasters that they have certain responsibilities that come with their public interest obligations. Obviously, they’re prohibited from engaging in news distortion or broadcast hoax,” added Carr.

Carr said he did not know whether broadcasters had aired segments on the polls he cited. Asked whether the FCC was investigating, he invited the public to bring complaints.

“I think people should raise it, yeah. If people think that there’s broadcasters that are participating in the production of this,” said Carr.

He pointed to FCC precedent from the 1960s involving stations that conducted their own telephone polls without being transparent with viewers about the scientific basis, or lack of one, for the results.

“A lot of the FCC’s good cases on broadcast go back to the 1960s and 1970s. A little bit of a gap there. We’re working on closing that gap,” said Carr.

Carr said some coverage had mischaracterized his statement as a threat to punish any outlet that published a poll unfavorable to a particular politician. He referred reporters back to the text of the statement.

Gomez points to the legal standards

Gomez opened her remarks by placing the poll statement alongside other recent FCC actions involving election coverage.

“We have seen the equal opportunities guidance rewritten and political advertising rules reinterpreted. Each time the effect has been to make broadcasters think twice before doing their jobs,” said Gomez.

She then laid out the two standards Carr referenced.

“News distortion requires proof that a broadcaster deliberately distorted a factual report. A broadcast hoax requires knowingly false information about a crime or catastrophe that causes immediate harm. Reporting on a poll this administration dislikes does not come close to meeting either standard,” said Gomez.

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Gomez said she wrote to the National Association of Broadcasters last week to urge the trade group to make sure every station, large and small, knows what the commission’s rules and the law require. Asked about the association’s response, she said she looked forward to working with NAB on making its members aware of those requirements.

A Reuters reporter asked whether airing a poll that later proved fabricated could trigger either rule.

“You have to deliberately want to lie to the American people about something of great importance. And simply reporting on a poll that turns out later to be inaccurate or, in the case of the reports that we’re seeing, fabricated, does not meet that standard,” said Gomez.

Gomez said she was not aware of any broadcaster that had aired a poll in a way that would raise the issue, or of any FCC investigation into one.

No timeline on Disney

“We’re still reviewing that matter. We haven’t made a decision. We haven’t made a decision about when we’re making a decision,” said Carr.

Carr said the FCC has been reviewing and producing documents tied to letters of inquiry sent to Disney as part of the agency’s diversity, equity, and inclusion investigation. He said several parties had filed petitions to deny early renewal of Disney’s licenses and that he had not finished reviewing them. He did not say whether the commission would wait for a court ruling on Disney’s pending lawsuit before acting. Gomez said she did not know where the matter stood.

“As I’ve said before, I’m glad that Disney filed its complaint because Disney will win on the law and on the First Amendment,” said Gomez.

What the commission adopted

The item with the most direct effect on equipment makers ends FCC recognition of test labs, telecommunications certification bodies and laboratory accreditation bodies in countries that lack a mutual recognition agreement or comparable reciprocal arrangement with the U.S. Recognitions in those countries terminate Dec. 1, 2028. Under FCC rules, radio frequency devices must be tested and certified by FCC-recognized labs and certification bodies before they can be imported or sold in the U.S.

FCC staff presented data showing that the share of equipment authorization applications tied to test firms in China rose from about 13% in 2007 to 82.3% in 2025, while the U.S. share fell from about 31% to 3.6%. Staff said the agency recently found four labs in China recycling identical test results across different products. Andrew Hendrickson, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, said at the bureau press conference that the FCC is examining those products but has no enforcement actions in motion.

“There’s a transition period here obviously to these new rules going into effect, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are gonna look the other way over the next two years,” said Carr.

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The commission also proposed auctioning 25 MHz in the 1675-1695 MHz and 2020-2025 MHz bands for terrestrial wireless, satellite direct-to-device service or a combination. Carr said the National Telecommunications and Information Administration expects to complete its study of the federally used 1675 MHz band by early 2027. A separate proposal would make up to 482 MHz of additional spectrum available for supplemental coverage from space, the FCC’s framework for satellite operators partnering with wireless carriers to reach phones directly, and would loosen the leasing and geographic requirements adopted in 2024.

An order adopted at the meeting lifts a 35-year-old prohibition on airborne use of the 800 MHz cellular band, opening about 50 MHz of low-band spectrum to drone command, control and payload traffic. The rule barring airline passengers from using phones in flight stays in place.

The remaining items modernized national security requirements for international Section 214 authorization holders, including 5% ownership reporting, disclosure of cross-border facilities at the Canadian and Mexican borders and a ban on equipment from the FCC’s covered list; proposed vetting rules for future high-cost broadband funding under the Rural Broadband Protection Act; and opened a review of the commission’s accessibility rules. Gomez said she remained concerned about a proposal to move accessibility design guidance from the rules to the FCC website.

The commission also proposed a $4,401,666 forfeiture against Lifeline provider Boomerang Wireless, which the Enforcement Bureau said sought reimbursement for 442 deceased subscribers enrolled with false addresses between June 2025 and January 2026.

Carr announced that Courtney Reinhart will serve as chief of the Space Bureau.

The next open meeting is Nov. 19, when Carr said the commission will vote on rules allowing state and local prisons and jails to jam contraband cellphones, along with proposals to open spectrum for drone networks, in-flight broadband and counter-drone detection.