FCC Chair Brendan Carr DESTROYS Wokeness In Legacy Media & Disney | KMP Ep.37

17:54They're going to try to develop something else. But the U.S. is really leading the way here. But the key is, you know, President Trump saying we have to, you know, get these things going without ideological bias.

18:05Katie Miller:I'm sure you've seen the news reports of Anthropics' new model mythos and how they gave it to five different banks, J.P. Morgan included, would have thousands of employees to test the model for cybersecurity risks. That could potentially lead to telecom failures and telecom cybersecurity risks. But yet, not one employee that they gave it to had a national security clearance, or we weren't guaranteed that they would give it to China or Iran when they handed it over. What risk does that present to you as the regulator of telecom here in the United States? Well, we see a lot of, just more broadly, even cybersecurity threats, and we have whole work stream standing up on that.

18:46But with AI in particular, you can sit AI on a telecom network, and in a matter of seconds, it can effectively do the work that previously other cyber attacks would have taken weeks or months of sitting on the network to be able to figure out. So there is a real risk in terms of how some of that stuff is deployed, and there are a lot of concerns around some of the models that you've flagged.

19:05Katie Miller:How concerned should Americans be about the risks of AI, whether that be what they're streaming? You see a lot of AI generative content, TV content. Is that something that the FCC wants to get into regulating, specifically to understand what is truth versus fiction, or is they're going to use it in movies? Well, we've got to strike a right balance here. There is a role for the FCC. So as part of one of President Trump's executive orders, it calls on the FCC to look at some state regulations that may be overly regulating AI, not in the ways that we've sort of spoken about here, but that are substantively regulating AI in a way that is going to hold back its development.

19:47And so the FCC is looking at that right now. Potentially, there could be First Amendment issues with some of the disclosure requirements that states are looking to impose. So we have to have a balance here to make sure that U.S. does lead the way.

19:58Katie Miller:Recently, Amazon indicated that it would not meet the number of satellites it deployed in low-Earth orbit as required under its FCC license. I think they're are supposed to deploy half by now, and it seems like they will miss by a lot. How do you deal with something like that? Yeah, this is a really interesting one. So historically, when you've had a situation like this, whether it's satellite or terrestrial mobile wireless, and someone hasn't met their build-out obligations, the FCC effectively looks the other way and takes no action. And we've been trying to take a different approach. So we're working through those issues with Amazon right now.

20:29I don't expect that the FCC will move forward without taking some sort of action that matches the consequence of their failure to meet the milestone. And we'll see where that goes. But we'll see that on the mobile wireless side as well. So for instance, we have big providers that effectively weren't meeting their build-out obligations. And we've reminded them that you have to do this, you have to build out. And so we're going to be holding folks accountable.

20:50Katie Miller:The Biden administration engaged in a lot of, I would say, political one-sidedness here at the FCC, even with Starlink. How have you undone some of what they've caused damage to this agency? If you look at the Biden years, again, I was here as a commissioner in the minority. There was just a tremendous amount of weaponization at this agency. You had, for instance, members of Congress and the Senate that wrote the FCC letters. Actually, the letters came in during Trump 45, pressuring the agency to investigate Sinclair, which was a broadcaster that Democrats thought was too conservative. Democrats come in during the Biden years, and they picked right up on that, and they failed to renew the licenses for almost any Sinclair TV station, which had never been done before.

21:38There was zero reporting about that. You then had members of Congress write letters to cable companies, pressuring them to drop Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax, because they thought they were too conservative, and that effort bore fruit. Some of those channels were, in fact, drop. During the midterms in 2022, there was a sale of a Spanish language radio station to what was perceived as conservative buyers in South Florida. The DNC and Democrats weighed in with the FCC and said we had to block that sale. Otherwise, the midterms could be lost. That sale was ultimately abandoned. You had a Fox broadcast TV, again, not Fox News cable, but Fox broadcast TV in Philadelphia that was up for renewal during the Biden years.

22:16And the FCC then took the unprecedented step of putting it out for comment to see if we should not renew the license because of content that was broadcast on a cable channel. And the list of weaponization during the Biden years just goes on and on and on. It includes Starlink. Again, the FCC during Trump 45 provided an award to Starlink$885 million to ensure that millions of Americans would get access to high-speed internet very quickly. And the Biden administration revoked it, in what my view was plainly a move designed at retribution for Elon Musk deciding to embrace free speech on social media.

22:52And so what we saw is a history of weaponization. And when I come in, my view is that we should apply the law in a fair and even-handed manner. It's a really interesting debate because I think a lot of Republicans historically would come to agencies like this, or they would get gavels in committees in Congress, and they would say, we can't do anything. Because if we do something, then when Democrats come in again, they're going to weaponize the actions. And my view is, you know, we can't take the gavels and run to the farthest flung corners of the country and bury them in the sand out of fear of what Democrats are going to do, because Democrats weaponized the gavels at the FCC.

23:26They already did it, and then nobody covered it. No one covered it. They're going to do it again. Are they going to blame me when they do it again? Like, okay, sure, fine.

23:33Katie Miller:But you seem like you don't give a shit, like what anyone has to say about you. My job here is to take the gavel, apply the law and a fair and even a way. Again, I think it comes from Trump. I mean, if you look at what he's done, what he's gone through, he's a happy warrior, he's hard charging, he brings a lot of energy. I mean, you know, the New York Times, I'm sure, has already written my obituary and it's not positive, so it doesn't matter what else I do. The rules surrounding international spectrum use from space seem pretty outdated. They were written at a time when there was no low Earth orbit constellations and only satellites in geo.

24:06Katie Miller:How do you plan to address things like the power flux density at the national level and where this translate internationally? Yeah, this is a really interesting issue. So historically, you'd have one or two satellites in orbit. They were way, way up there. They provided not very great connectivity. We now have this entirely new generation of low-Earth orbit satellites. Starlink is among them. Amazon, hopefully, is going to get some more satellites up there soon. But they're providing really great connectivity. Now, we had rules on the books that was artificially constraining the power they could operate on because they were rules designed for those bigger satellites operating in far Earth orbit.

24:43So at the FCC, we're voting this month to modernize those rules and it could increase the capacity of these low Earth orbit systems by up to sevenfold. A lot of our countries abroad aren't joining us in that effort. We're going to try to persuade them a little bit. But at least for Americans, you are going to benefit.

25:01Katie Miller:When these international bodies like the EU have a different set of rules for American companies versus their own. I think it's outrageous. I mean, look, there's an old line about how America innovates, China imitates, and Europe regulates. And I think you see that a lot in the satellite space. So most people are used to the fact that Europe is very protectionist in the technology sector in general, right? They are penalizing and punishing successful U.S. technology companies simply for being successful U.S. technology companies. We see that in the satellite space as well. So for instance, unlike big tech, where Europe has no national champions or significant number of companies, it's asymmetric.

25:42But satellites are not that way.

25:44Katie Miller:Do you think Europe's right to fine our big tech companies for speech on their platforms? No, they're effectively over-regulating their own industries. And they are fining U.S. businesses to subsidize their own lack of economic growth. In the satellite space, they're doing the same thing. They're imposing regulations that favor European satellite providers, because unlike technology companies, there are European satellite providers. So they're favoring European satellite providers and effectively trying to keep U.S. satellite providers out of Europe. But again, reciprocity, those European satellite providers want to do business in America.

26:19And so we started proceeding at the FCC to make sure that there's reciprocal treatment. And effectively, the ball is in Europe's core. If they want to shut out U.S. providers from Europe. We're going to make sure there's reciprocal treatment here in America. And again, I think it's close from President Trump, which is a core principle of his is reciprocal treatment, right? We're not going to get taken advantage of anymore.

26:40Katie Miller:So I think the viewers now know a little bit what's going on here at the FCC. What's a typical day like for Brendan Carr? Okay. Typical day is my littlest kid first jumps into the bed. How old are your kids? So I got three boys. They're 12, 9, and 6. So the 6-year-old is first. Do you wish you had more kids? Yeah, I think it's awesome. I think the more you can have, the better. I started kind of late. We do personal questions here. Yeah, you can look at me. I'm a little old at this point, but I'd love to have more. The dog is a second one in the bed. And then, you know, we get the family going, and I drop the three kids off at school.

27:11We come in, and the day could be anything from, you know, speaking at an event to just meeting with teams inside, making policy decisions, and then ultimately get home. Sometimes I get home in time for—it's Little League season right now, so all three of my boys are in different baseball and t-ball teams. so I can get home in time to catch part of their games. That's always a lot of fun as well.

27:30Katie Miller:Who's your closest friends in the administration? Gosh, I probably look across other agencies. So, you know, Andrew Ferguson is probably the closest to the FCC in terms of what he's doing at the FTC. So that might be one. President Trump called you the most important man in the room at a recent EO signing. What's your relationship like with the president? Look, I think President Trump is, you know, the political colossus of our time. You know, he is one of one. And getting the chance to spend time with him, It's energizing. It's also tiring. After spending a day or so with him, it always takes a little bit of time to recover from that.

28:01But just being around him, his level of energy, again, seeing everything he's walked through and his commitment to just keep on fighting, I think it inspires everyone across the administration. I think you just have this great, I wouldn't even call it competition across agency heads, but everyone is working so hard to deliver results for him, and it's a lot of fun.

28:18Katie Miller:How often do you guys speak? I don't know. Every week or so, we end up bumping into each other, either at an event or otherwise. What's your favorite story with President Trump? Everyone's got one of something crazy. Well, look, I think I've had the chance to play golf with President Trump, and he's just a lot of fun on the golf course, really entertaining. I'd say as a personal matter, it's always a little bit intimidating. One, when you're playing golf, you're on the first tee. There's always like first tee jitters as a general matter. But then you're, one, standing next to the President of the United States.

28:46Two, there's Secret Service there. Three, you've got snipers with the tripods around. And then four, you can hear the drone sort of hovering overhead. And so sort of going through and living through that life experience is interesting and a lot of fun.

28:59Katie Miller:So you have three kids that are elementary age. What do they think you do? Well, one of my kids, you recently made me a piece of artwork over here that says KFC chairman. So I think maybe one of them thinks I'm the chairman of KFC. We eat some KFC on occasion on the weekend. Don't tell Secretary Kennedy that we do that. But I think they do generally understand that I work here. They're big fans of baseball, as I said, with T-ball. So I got to throw out the first pitch last year to Yankees game and took them to that. So I think that part of the job is pretty interesting. Do you pitch yourself to go deliver the first pitch?

29:30Sometimes you got to work the ref a little bit to get there, but sometimes the invites come your way.

29:35Katie Miller:How do you handle being present with your family when you have such a high demanding job? It's hard. It's really the toughest part. I mean, you're sort of always on your phone. You're always on call. You know, is the president going to call? Is someone in the building going to call? And so you always have to have that nearby. by. But any time that you get, you know, away from here with the kids, it's, you know, that's the best. That's what it's all about. I mean, the more time you can spend with family, the better. If they can go to events with you, the better. But, you know, these jobs are time limited, right?

30:01I mean, the most important thing that we have in government is time, because at some point, we time to move on for this job. And I guess being at the FCC, watching lots of chairs before me, invariably, when they leave, they wish they had another month or two. And I try to take that mindset from the get-go and just every single day grind as hard as we can. And so you don't get the great work-life balance per se. You do the best you can, but this is a very limited window and the vast majority of my life will be looking back. And I just don't want to regret that I didn't get one or two more things done.

30:32Katie Miller:You really elevated a sub-cabinet role to what is a predominant player, at least in this administration, in terms of its importance and the prioritization here, and you've done it unafraid. Why do you think you've behaved like that? Is it that you don't care what the legacy media thinks because you know you're not going to have them on your side, because you don't want to win the support of your building? Those are kind of frequent refrains you hear from others, that they want to win the support of those people in the building. What's that for you? Well, one is that you have to live through some news cycles to realize that long term, it simply doesn't matter.

31:09So I was here during Trump 45, when you may remember the great net neutrality repeal when everyone said it was the end of the internet as we know it. I'm going to be honest.

31:17Katie Miller:I still don't understand net neutrality, even if you paid me. CNN had this banner headline that literally said, end of the internet. And people were protesting in the streets. And I knew at the time that it was the right policy. It was the right call. And what's happened since then? Speeds are up, prices are down. So you just have to believe firmly in what you're doing is the right policy call, understand that these political moments are going to come and go. And long term, you know, you know, you're doing the right thing. You just have to not worry about the news cycle of the day at all. What's the worst deep state, deep stater you found here or something that you fired, someone you fired who was just completely undermining you?

31:57You know, we're sort of lucky at the FCC. I think it's different than perhaps either DOJ or other agencies. It's a place where when the leadership says to go left, they go left. When the leadership says to go right, that go right.

32:08Katie Miller:You think they work as fast as you'd like them to on specific issues? We're really getting there. So again, we're right now, we are at the lowest level of FCC staff since 1957. So we engaged in our own doge efforts right off the bat. We did the fork in the road. You know, the FCC back then when I started had promoting DEI listed as our second highest strategic priority. We got rid of that. We got rid of the DEI advisory committee. So we cut a lot of that out. And beyond that, the staff is really oriented around the top priorities that we've set, and we just don't have the deep state resistance problem that perhaps others do.

32:44Katie Miller:What's the worst DEI you found at a company, and how do you detect that, you know, outside of the FCC at some of these private corporations? Well, we're still looking at it, but up to now, there's evidence that Disney has been pretty bad. I mean, there's evidence suggesting that Disney, you know, literally was, you know, dividing and categorizing employees based on race and gender, and potentially we'll see what the evidence establishes ultimately, giving different opportunities to people based on their race or gender or other protected class. And we're going to get some more discovery from Disney on that.

33:14But that could raise character questions about the company long term.

33:18Katie Miller:What would happen next? Let's pretend that they did that. And it's very obvious to anybody who, I guess, has eyes that that likely happened. And I know you can't prejudge or predetermine an outcome. I understand that. What would happen as the next step after that? Well, in terms of process, there's lots of options. You have a license. The licenses come due every so often. You can accelerate when a license come due and say, hey, we have significant concerns about you for conducting your operations. We want to review your license now and decide if you're in the public interest. If we find that a broadcaster hasn't been doing that, then the statute requires us to issue a hearing designation order.

33:54And that's a multi-month process then to go through a hearing, decide whether you get to keep your license or not. And those are all remedies that are on the table. I mean, ultimately, whether we pull a license for a big broadcaster like that will be decided by their own conduct. I'd be surprised if we ultimately don't go down the path of license revocation for some. But it will be up to them in their own conduct.

34:15Katie Miller:On every pod, we play a game of would you rather. Would you rather fix nationwide rural broadband or eliminate all spam robocalls forever? Gosh, I would say spam robocalls, which may sound like a weird answer because we're sort of like the pipes and tubes people, but we're really starting to make progress on its own on rural broadband. I think Starlink solves rural broadband. Starlink does a lot. President Trump is doing a lot with this$42 billion bead program, but robocalls is our top consumer complaint. We're actually doing a lot on it, but that would be the one I would pick of those two. Why does everyone hate the bead program?

34:47Well, the bead program was established originally during the Biden years. It was$42 billion. Vice President Harris was put in charge of it. And it went nowhere. Not a single shovel's worth of dirt was turned. No one was connected. Trump has come in. Secretary Lutnik has come in. They fundamentally reformed it. Maybe some people don't like that they reformed it. They've saved people money. And you're going to start to see the shovels and the dirt turning soon on that program. I think it's going to be a good win.

35:12Katie Miller:Would you rather have every NFL game on broadcast TV, but only in standard definition, or have every game in 4K, but behind 12 subscriptions? Yeah. It's got to be over the air. I mean, it's just it's so frustrating when you have to remember what you signed up for and having to pay more money for it. I think I think sports should be free over the air. Would you rather deal with one massive nationwide outage per year or small local outages every week? Oh, my gosh. That's a bad choice between the two. But but I guess that's what makes a good question. I probably say a single one because then we could sort of deal with it, get over it and move on.

35:50Katie Miller:This question's funny. Would you rather explain net neutrality to a group of fifth graders or have fifth graders teach you a viral TikTok dance? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, probably the viral TikTok dance. I mean, we're past the 6-7 stage, thankfully, so it wouldn't be that. Were your kids into 6-7? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I still don't get 6-7. Yeah. No, I don't know. Would you rather have to personally approve every new streaming service or every new social media app? Gosh, probably streaming service. Again, just given our sort of interest at this point in time and, you know, the sports rights issues. How often do you have to reset your passwords?

36:24Well, probably too many times ultimately, but it's a lot.

36:29Katie Miller:Where do you get your news? So I'm big on social media. It may be a surprise to you that I'm fairly online. Are you chronically online? Yeah, no, unfortunately. So a lot of X, I use it as a news feed, podcast I listen to. Because I just asked somebody else this question. You know what I'm saying when I say Brian Johnson had sex with Kate, right? Yeah, that was oversharing by his part. See, 100%. See, I'm not the only, if he's chronically online, He gets it too. Yeah. I asked Laura Trump who was the best interview she'd done, and she said Brian Johnson. And I said, well, Brian Johnson had sex with Kate.

37:01Katie Miller:And she had no idea what I was referring to. She's not chronically online. Right, you have to be chronically online. A good test. Now, I unfortunately know what that is. So I do a lot of social media, a lot of X. I use that as a news feed, podcast. I'm on the phone a lot. That's sort of my intake of information. What keeps you up at night?

37:18Not a lot, actually. Yeah, I go to bed pretty well, and usually I'm pretty tired out from running around with the kids and everything.

37:25Katie Miller:What's a conspiracy theory that you believe in? A conspiracy theory that I believe in? Well, I mean, if you go back to net neutrality, I think ultimately that was one that was an idea completely planted by Google and others that was just a completely made-up fake issue, and they somehow created a national political movement for a number of years there, but I think it's finally over, thankfully. What's the first app you check in the morning? X. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? Not that long. You know, my hair is custom made for getting up and getting going fast. How often do you have to shave it?

37:59Every other day.

38:00Katie Miller:Do you really? With a razor yourself or with clippers? Yeah, with clippers. And how long does it take you? I think that's like four or five minutes. There's a lot of bald guys in this administration. I'm just saying. Yeah, yeah. No, it's good. It's good. What's your most controversial opinion? in? Apparently, if you ask a lot of people in D.C., it's that broadcasters should operate in public interest. If they don't, they should lose their license. But I think it's common sense. Who's yelled at you the most? Who's yelled at me the most? I don't think I've had that yet, really. No head of network has called and bitched you out?

38:31Nope.

38:32Katie Miller:Are they very scared of you? Is that what this is? Hopefully. What do you think success looks like in terms of reshaping the media landscape? Ultimately, I think if the numbers of trust go up, because it's in their own business model to do that. And them realizing that, you know, they're not - Do you think that's the job of government though? Well, it's the job in the sense that they're supposed to operate in the public interest. And I think it's deviating from the public interest. That's part of what the problem is. And so we can reorient them back to operating in the public interest. I think they will ultimately probably benefit as a business matter.

39:01But even if they don't benefit as a business matter, they still have to operate in the public interest. And that's what we're going to do.

39:05Katie Miller:What's your most liberal take? I don't know what the most liberal take would be. I mean, you know, we're sticking to the law? And I mean, ultimately the FCC. Even personally, like outside of the FCC, like go outside of the FCC. Come on. Well, liberal in the traditional sense is deregulatory. I mean, we're engaging in probably like the biggest deregulatory effort. That's still a conservative take. Like what's a liberal opinion you have? Gosh. Everyone's got one. Yeah, no, nothing really jumps to mind on this one. Like mine's closed solar energy. Like that's a pretty liberal take. I mean, I voted in D.C.

39:36once to sort of to decriminalize marijuana, but that's a vote that I like deeply regret at this point. I think that was a deep mistake. That was probably the most, you know, one of the liberal actions that I took.

39:44Katie Miller:Is that because you walk around D.C. now and just smell weed everywhere and it's disgusting? You smell weed everywhere. It's disgusting. I think more studies are out now about the negative effects on it. So that's sort of a liberal-ish action that I regret. That one's a rough one. Yeah. I'm deeply sorry you said that out loud. I don't have the no regrets tattoo on that one. I have regrets on that one. We will end on this question. Yeah. If you could host a dinner party with three people that are alive, who's sitting at the table, and what are you eating? Well, eating is easy. Eating's easy? What are you eating?

40:14Eating is ribeye. A good sort of ribeye steak. Got to have it. And I guess the first top three people that come to mind, you know, would be President Trump, Vice President, and Secretary of State. I think that would be a good group.

40:28Katie Miller:You don't got anyone back who's dead? No. Let's just jump to mine now. So you said earlier that you apologize to Robbie Kennedy because you're not Maha. Yeah. Is your whole house not Maha? No, I think they're pretty good about that. The KFC notwithstanding, I think we're pretty good. Have you gotten onto the protein-only fermented vegetable diet? I've not done fermented vegetables yet, no. Okay. You know it's like a thing, though, now that everyone's doing. It's like the trendy, trendy diet amongst the peoples. I haven't done it. Okay. Is there anything else you want to add about your success here at the FCC?

41:04No, we're just having fun. And every day we're just trying to get some good stuff done. It's good.

41:07Katie Miller:Thank you for doing this. Yeah, it was fun. Thank you so much for watching this episode of the Katie Miller Podcast. We'll be back next week at 6 p.m. Eastern. See you then.