Now The Trump Administration Is Going After Comcast, Too

FCC Chair Brendan Carr promised to scrutinize big media companies last fall. He's following through.

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• Brendan Carr, Donald Trump's pick to head the Federal Communications Commission, is investigating Comcast.
• Carr says he's concerned about Comcast's embrace of DEI.
• This is just one of several media companies Trump and his administration have either sued or investigated.

After last fall's election, Brendan Carr — Donald Trump's choice to head the Federal Communications Commission — said he'd be going after big media companies.

He is keeping his word.

On Tuesday, Carr told Comcast — the giant cable and broadband company that also owns media properties including NBC, Peacock, and the Universal film and TV studio — that he's going to start investigating the company to make sure it's not promoting "discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws."

We can get back to Carr's letter in a minute. But the big picture here is most important: Last fall, Carr, who at the time was an FCC commissioner, announced that he'd be scrutinizing big media companies once he started running the agency.

Now he's doing that.

Earlier this month, his agency compelled CBS to hand over transcripts and video from a "60 Minutes" interview it ran with Kamala Harris last fall, ostensibly because it's concerned about "news distortion." This is the same interview that's the focus of a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CBS owner Paramount, which Paramount is now trying to settle. That lawsuit is theoretically separate from the FCC approval Paramount owner Shari Redstone needs in order to sell her company to David and Larry Ellison. In the real world, the two seem very intertwined.

Now, Carr has added Comcast to the list of Big Media companies that need scrutiny. It's worth noting that Trump, as a private citizen, has already successfully gone after Disney, via a lawsuit he filed last year — and got Disney to settle once he'd been elected. At this point, the only media company I'd be surprised to see Trump and his administration target would be Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corp., which owns Fox News, Trump's favorite channel.

In theory, Carr is scrutinizing Comcast because he thinks they may be violating civil rights laws because "there is substantial evidence that your companies are still engaging in the promotion of DEI," per the letter he sent to Comcast this week. (I've asked Carr for comment, as well as the full text of the note, which was summarized by NewsMax.)

Why does the head of the FCC, which is supposed to enforce communications law, get to weigh in on whether a media conglomerate does or doesn't promote DEI? Carr has an answer: The FCC has oversight over several of Comcast's businesses, from "cable to high-speed internet and from broadcast TV stations to … wireless offerings." (Carr does not mention Comcast's plan to spin off most of its cable networks, which shouldn't require FCC approval — but could conceivably get held up by a different Trump-appointed regulator.)

In theory, this may be connected to a Trump executive order instructing his agencies "to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences," and for each agency to find "up to nine potential civil compliance investigations" at places like publicly traded companies, non-profits and colleges. (Last week, on her first day on the job, US Attorney General Pam Bondi put her office to work on the same task, and said she would also look at "criminal investigations" to stop DEI.)

In a statement, Comcast acknowledged it received Carr's letter and said it "will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions. For decades, our company has been built on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers."

But it would be naive to think that Carr is going after Comcast because he has a problem with the company's HR practices alone.

Right before the election, for instance, Carr was complaining about the way Comcast's "Saturday Night Live" used Kamala Harris in a cameo, which he said violated the agency's "equal time" rules. Carr said that could conceivably put the broadcast licenses Comcast owns at risk: "in my view, every single remedy needs to be on the table, at least as an initial matter."

In other words, there seem to be lots of things a big media company can do that will earn the ire of the Trump administration. Maybe it's an interview. Maybe it's a comedy skit. Maybe it's the way they hire and promote people.

And if you're worried that the next thing you do could upset the president of the United States, maybe you'll think carefully before you do that thing. No matter what it is. Which seems to be the point.