By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday rejected complaints about how ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump, and appearances of Vice President Kamala Harris on CBS' "60 Minutes" and NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
In a statement, outgoing FCC (BME:FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the commission was rejecting complaints that "seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment."
Rosenworcel also said the agency had rejected a petition not to renew the license of a Philadelphia Fox TV station.
An advocacy group asked the FCC in 2023 to deny a licence renewal for WTXF-TV, complaining that its parent Fox, which also owns Fox News, had aired "false information about election fraud" about the 2020 presidential election. The group, the Media and Democracy Project, said on Thursday it plans to appeal the decision.
In September, Trump urged the FCC to cancel licenses for Walt Disney-owned ABC over the network's moderating of the Sept. 10 presidential debate.
In October, Trump filed a lawsuit against Paramount-owned CBS over the "60 Minutes" interview with Harris that he called "misleading," and asked the commission to compel the broadcaster to release a transcript.
Trump, who won the Nov. 5 election, will be inaugurated on Monday for his second term in office.
The FCC rejected a complaint by the Center for American Rights that the "60 Minutes" interview was distorted, saying the nonprofit group failed to provide sufficient evidence that the broadcast engaged in "a deliberate and intentional falsification of the news."
CBS has said that Trump backed out of his own planned interview with "60 Minutes."
Rosenworcel said Trump was a threat to the First Amendment for calling on the FCC to revoke licenses for broadcast television stations because he disagrees with their content and coverage.
"The FCC should not be the president's speech police," Rosenworcel said.
The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.
Trump's pick to head the FCC, Brendan Carr, criticized Comcast-owned NBC for letting Harris appear on Saturday Night Live just before the election. The FCC noted NBC made available equivalent time and audience for Trump during two sports events.
The Trump transition team and Carr did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Carr told reporters in November the FCC will examine all the relevant issues such as whether the broadcasters were meeting their obligation to act in the public interest.
In 2017, then FCC Chair Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by Trump, rejected his suggestion the FCC could challenge NBC's license after it published stories Trump declared were untrue.