FCC chair Brendan Carr urges broadcasters air pro-America content

The Federal Communications Commission is now offering broadcasters a chance to prove their “public interest” virtue by airing government-approved sentimentality. FCC chair Brendan Carr has launched a “Pledge America Campaign” urging radio and TV stations to run “patriotic, pro-America programming” tied to President Donald Trump’s “Salute to America 250” initiative for the country’s 250th anniversary, according to Ars Technica.

Carr’s suggested menu is revealingly specific: start each broadcast day with the national anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance; insert public-service announcements promoting “civic education” and American history; highlight National Park Service sites; play “America’s greatest composers”; and run daily “Today in American History” segments. Officially, it’s “voluntary.” Practically, it is a regulator with licensing power handing out a content checklist.

The FCC’s leverage is not subtle. Broadcast licenses are periodically renewed and remain conditioned on the agency’s famously elastic “public interest” doctrine. Carr explicitly framed participation as a way to “fulfill” stations’ public-interest obligations, Ars notes—an interesting choice of words from an official who has repeatedly floated using that same standard to punish disfavored speech. Carr has previously threatened license consequences and opened investigations touching ABC programming, including targeting Jimmy Kimmel and probing The View under the banner of public interest compliance, per Ars.

This is how soft coercion works in regulated industries: the state doesn’t need to order propaganda if it can merely define what “good citizenship” looks like and then grade licensees on their enthusiasm. Harold Feld of Public Knowledge told Ars Technica that if the campaign were genuinely voluntary and merely celebratory, there would be no reason to limit it to FCC-regulated broadcasters—an observation that cuts to the core: the point is the leverage.

The initiative also arrives amid renewed pressure on broadcasters over the equal-time rule, with Stephen Colbert claiming CBS provided legal guidance that chilled a planned interview with a Texas Senate candidate after Carr signaled he might revisit exemptions for talk shows. CBS disputed the characterization but acknowledged legal guidance; Carr called Colbert a liar. Even without formal rule changes, the effect is the same: compliance departments start pre-censoring to avoid becoming a test case.

When a regulator that controls market entry, spectrum access, and license renewal starts “inviting” content commitments aligned with a White House celebration, the line between public-interest regulation and state cultural management becomes a rounding error. This is sold as “non-partisan” civic unity—administered by the same office that can make a station’s license renewal depend on how well it sings along.