FCC chief: Agency is not 'president's speech police'

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel is dismissing four high profile petitions before the agency before she vacates the position, saying such action is necessary to protect the First Amendment.

In a Thursday statement, Rosenworcel said the FCC would dismiss the complaints and petitions from various groups "that seek to curtail freedom of the press and undermine the First Amendment."

Two of the complaints come from a conservative group against CBS News over how a "60 Minutes" interview with Vice President Harris was edited and another against NBC over an equal-time debate between Harris and president-elect Trump stemming from her appearance on "Saturday Night Live" before the election. A third came against ABC over how it conducted a presidential debate between the two candidates.

The fourth complaint comes from a former Fox executive who argued a Fox-owned television station should lose its broadcast license over its coverage of the 2020 election.

"The facts and legal circumstances in each of these cases are different," Rosenworcel said. "But what they share is that they seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment."

" To do so would set a dangerous precedent. That is why we reject it here," she added.

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