The Trump FCC’s regulatory guile
The first 19 months of the Trump Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have changed the nature of the agency.
特朗普上任后的前 19 个月，联邦通信委员会 (FCC) 改变了该机构的性质。
For most of its history, the FCC was a policy-driven body existing in an inevitably political environment.
在其历史的大部分时间里，联邦通信委员会都是一个政策驱动的机构，存在于不可避免的政治环境中。
Under the Trump administration, it has become a politics-driven agency employing policy as an instrument.
在特朗普政府的领导下，它已成为一个以政策为工具的政治驱动机构。
Once an independent agency accountable to Congress, the FCC lost that independence when President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring the FCC and other formerly independent agencies to submit to White House supervision.
联邦通信委员会曾经是一个对国会负责的独立机构，但当唐纳德·特朗普总统发布行政命令，要求联邦通信委员会和其他以前的独立机构接受白宫监督时，联邦通信委员会就失去了独立性。
The agency subsequently deleted the word “independent ” from its website description.
该机构随后从其网站描述中删除了“独立”一词。
Confirming his agency’s new lack of independence, Chairman Brendan Carr testified to Congress, “The FCC is not an independent agency, formally speaking.”
主席布伦丹·卡尔 (Brendan Carr) 向国会作证，证实该机构缺乏独立性，“从正式意义上讲，联邦通信委员会并不是一个独立机构。”
How the no-longer independent agency has exercised its new role is distinctly Trumpian.
这个不再独立的机构如何履行其新角色显然是特朗普式的。
Consider, for instance, two recent actions of the commission.
例如，考虑一下委员会最近的两项行动。
Both actions use regulatory authority to influence media coverage so it is favorable to the president.
这两项行动都利用监管机构影响媒体报道，因此对总统有利。
Both were explained to the public behind a “public interest” smokescreen.
这两件事都是在“公共利益”烟幕幕后向公众解释的。
On April 28, the Trump FCC broke with over 50 years of precedent to order The Walt Disney Company’s eight ABC-owned television stations to prematurely apply for renewal of their local broadcast licenses.
4 月 28 日，特朗普 FCC 打破了 50 多年的先例，命令华特迪士尼公司旗下 8 家 ABC 旗下电视台提前申请续签当地广播许可证。
Trump has been vociferous in his complaints about ABC’s coverage and has repeatedly called for the FCC to revoke local licenses held by ABC.
特朗普一直大声抱怨 ABC 的报道，并多次呼吁 FCC 撤销 ABC 持有的当地许可证。
The smokescreen was the asserted need to investigate whether the stations were complying with their public interest obligations regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
烟幕弹是声称需要调查电视台是否遵守其关于多样性、公平和包容性（DEI）的公共利益义务。
Carr has provided no evidence that ABC violated any law, nor has the Trump FCC adopted any broadcast rule governing DEI practices.
卡尔没有提供任何证据证明 ABC 违反了任何法律，特朗普 FCC 也没有采用任何管理 DEI 做法的广播规则。
On Aug.
八月。
6, the FCC voted 2-1 along party lines to repeal the 39% national television ownership cap established by Congress.
6 月 6 日，FCC 按照党派路线以 2 比 1 的投票结果废除了国会设立的 39% 的全国电视所有权上限。
To advance the administration’s ability to choose winners and losers under the new rule, the decision authorized the agency to determine who is worthy on a case-by-case basis.
为了提高政府根据新规则选择赢家和输家的能力，该决定授权该机构根据具体情况确定谁有资格。
While the ABC action was an effort to coerce favorable coverage, this decision smacks of favoritism to Trump allies.
虽然美国广播公司的行动是为了强制进行有利的报道，但这一决定带有偏袒特朗普盟友的味道。
It, too, hides behind a smokescreen; this time, the claim is that online streaming is hurting the ability of broadcasters to afford to deliver local news and thus they must be allowed to expand.
它也隐藏在烟幕后面。这一次，有人声称在线流媒体正在损害广播公司提供本地新闻的能力，因此必须允许它们扩张。
Not surprisingly, the first beneficiary had been selected, Trump-friendly Nexstar Media , which, by acquiring Tegna, Inc., would double its national reach to approximately 80% of American homes.
毫不奇怪，第一个受益者被选中，即对特朗普友好的 Nexstar Media，该公司通过收购 Tegna, Inc.，将其全国覆盖范围扩大一倍，覆盖约 80% 的美国家庭。
The guile of these decisions is passing off such blatantly political moves to influence what the American people see on television as protecting the “public interest.” Both actions do fulfill, however, the not-so-subtle warning the agency issued to broadcasters in a May 2026 public notice that it “will not hesitate to exercise its statutory authority to ensure that broadcasters either fulfill their public interest obligation or provide the privilege of being a broadcast licensee to someone that will fulfill that duty.”
这些决定的诡计在于冒充这种公然的政治举动，以影响美国人民在电视上看到的保护“公共利益”的观点。然而，这两项行动确实履行了该机构在 2026 年 5 月的一份公告中向广播公司发出的不那么微妙的警告，即“将毫不犹豫地行使其法定权力，以确保广播公司履行其公共利益义务，或向履行该义务的人提供成为广播被许可人的特权。”
On Aug.
八月。
18, ABC, its parent The Walt Disney Company, and the eight licensees filed suit in the District Court for the District of Columbia seeking an injunction against the FCC’s early license review on First Amendment grounds.
1 月 18 日，美国广播公司 (ABC)、其母公司华特迪士尼公司以及八家被许可方向哥伦比亚特区地方法院提起诉讼，寻求针对 FCC 以第一修正案为由进行早期许可审查的禁令。
It is a highly unusual action precipitated by the FCC’s highly unusual demand that the company file for early license review.
这是一项非常不寻常的行动，因为联邦通信委员会非常不寻常地要求该公司提前申请许可证审查。
There are eight television licenses in question (Durham, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, New York, and Philadelphia).
有八个电视许可证受到质疑（达勒姆、芝加哥、休斯顿、洛杉矶、旧金山、弗雷斯诺、纽约和费城）。
These licenses, like all such licenses, have an eight-year term.
与所有此类许可证一样，这些许可证的有效期为八年。
The shortest time remaining in any of the licenses is Durham, which still has two and a half years to run.
达勒姆是所有许可证中剩余时间最短的，还有两年半的时间。
The average time remaining in the licenses is four years and three months.
许可证的平均剩余时间为四年零三个月。
The call for early renewal is in itself prejudicial, ABC argues .
美国广播公司认为，呼吁提前续签本身就是有偏见的。
The complaint asserts there are only three things that can happen to the licenses in this review: (1) they are renewed (ABC argues the commission cannot lawfully do at this premature stage), (2) the FCC denies the renewals (thus fulfilling the president’s demand), or (3) they could be subjected to the endless purgatory of an ongoing investigation (equivalent to a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of licensees if the network’s programming displeases the president).
诉状称，在这次审查中，许可证只会发生三件事：(1)它们被更新(ABC认为委员会在这个过早的阶段不能合法地这样做)，(2)联邦通信委员会拒绝更新(从而满足总统的要求)，或者(3)它们可能会受到正在进行的调查的无休止的炼狱(如果网络的节目让总统不高兴，相当于悬在被许可人头上的达摩克利斯之剑)。
The suit argues that since renewal at this time is beyond the authority of the agency, the proceeding can only have a chilling effect on the programming of the ABC network.
该诉讼称，由于此时的续订超出了该机构的权限，因此该诉讼只会对 ABC 网络的节目产生寒蝉效应。
It also appears that the DEI smokescreen is wearing thin.
DEI 的烟幕弹似乎正在逐渐消失。
When ABC chose not to cover the president’s July 16 address on election security, Trump during the address called for the revocation of the licenses.
当 ABC 选择不报道总统 7 月 16 日关于选举安全的讲话时，特朗普在讲话中呼吁吊销许可证。
The following day, Carr pierced the DEI smokescreen when he said the commission’s renewal review will include the decision not to carry the speech.
第二天，卡尔戳破了 DEI 的烟幕弹，他表示委员会的更新审查将包括不发表演讲的决定。
In the Telecommunications Act of 1996 , Congress raised the cap on the reach of a broadcast group from 25% to 35% of television households.
在 1996 年的《电信法》中，国会将广播组覆盖电视家庭的上限从 25% 提高到 35%。
The purpose of this cap was to protect the diversity of voices necessary for democracy to function.
这一上限的目的是保护民主运作所需的声音多样性。
That same act also mandated that the FCC review on a biennial basis the broadcast rules “adopted pursuant to the Act.” In 2003, the FCC’s biennial review raised the ownership cap to 45%.
该法案还要求联邦通信委员会每两年审查“根据该法案通过的”广播规则。 2003年，FCC每两年一次的审查将所有权上限提高到45%。
Congress was not happy with the 45% cap and stepped in.
国会对 45% 的上限不满意并介入。
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 changed the biennial review to a quadrennial review and expressly provided that such review does not apply to the 39% cap.
2004年《综合拨款法》将两年期审查改为四年期审查，并明确规定这种审查不适用于39%的上限。
Carr contends that Congress only prohibited the FCC from changing the cap through the quadrennial review process, that the agency’s ability to change it through a separate rulemaking was unaffected.
卡尔认为，国会只是禁止联邦通信委员会通过四年一次的审查程序来改变上限，该机构通过单独的规则制定来改变上限的能力不受影响。
For over two decades, the cap has stayed at 39%.
二十多年来，这一上限一直保持在 39%。
While there have been back-and-forth efforts to adjust the cap’s calculation by discounting the viewers of UHF stations, the cap itself has remained unchanged.
尽管人们反复努力通过对超高频电台的观众进行折扣来调整上限的计算，但上限本身保持不变。
The recent decision on broadcast ownership eliminates the clear rule that previously applied to all transactions and replaced it with the vagueness discretion.
最近关于广播所有权的决定消除了之前适用于所有交易的明确规则，并以模糊的自由裁量权取而代之。
The Nexstar-Tegna transaction was endorsed by Trump on Truth Social as “more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks.” Carr’s response left little doubt about his alignment with the president, posting on X, “President Trump is exactly right…Let’s get it done.”
Nexstar-Tegna 交易得到了特朗普在 Truth Social 上的认可，称其为“与敌人、假新闻国家电视网络的更多竞争”。卡尔的回应毫无疑问他与总统的立场一致，他在 X 上发帖称，“特朗普总统完全正确……让我们把这件事完成吧。”
The only trouble was that the transaction was illegal as it violated the ownership cap.
唯一的问题是该交易是非法的，因为它违反了所有权上限。
The chairman had his media bureau solve that problem by granting Nexstar a waiver that allowed the transaction to proceed.
董事长让他的媒体局向 Nexstar 授予豁免权，允许交易继续进行，从而解决了这个问题。
The August 2-1 vote then attempted to eliminate the rule the bureau had already allowed Nexstar to exceed, replacing a uniform numerical limit with discretionary, case-by-case review.
随后，8 月 2 比 1 的投票试图取消该局已经允许 Nexstar 超越的规则，以酌情逐案审查取代统一的数字限制。
Opponents plan to ask the court to rule whether the August decision was legal considering the instructions from Congress.
反对者计划要求法院考虑国会的指示，裁定八月的决定是否合法。
The guile of these actions lies in the fact that, in the ABC matter, the FCC has failed to identify any alleged offense, while in the ownership cap matter, it replaced a clear numerical rule with discretionary review without meaningful standards.
这些行为的诡计在于，在ABC事件中，FCC未能识别出任何涉嫌违法行为，而在所有权上限问题上，它用没有有意义标准的自由裁量审查取代了明确的数字规则。
The result empowers the president and his commission majority to make politically based determinations.
结果使总统和他的委员会多数成员有权做出基于政治的决定。
Taking advantage of this, the ABC and ownership cap proceedings move toward the same political end.
利用这一点，ABC 和所有权上限程序朝着相同的政治目标迈进。
One places the licenses of a disfavored broadcaster under extraordinary scrutiny and jeopardy.
其中之一是将一家不受青睐的广播公司的许可证置于极其严格的审查和危险之下。
The other removes an expansion barrier for a broadcaster the president has publicly embraced.
另一个则消除了总统公开支持的广播公司的扩张障碍。
One is regulatory punishment; the other is regulatory privilege.
一是监管处罚；另一个是监管特权。
The danger is larger than either ABC or Nexstar.
危险比 ABC 或 Nexstar 更大。
Threats to a station’s license can have the effect of influencing speech.
对电视台执照的威胁可能会影响言论。
The Trump FCC’s guile has been to carry out both operations using traditional communications policy language.
特朗普联邦通信委员会的诡计是使用传统的通信政策语言来开展这两项行动。
“Public interest” was once about the obligation of broadcasters to serve their communities fairly and well.
“公共利益”曾经是指广播公司公平、良好地为社区服务的义务。
At the Trump FCC, this time-honored concept has been turned into a political weapon to serve the president’s interests.
在特朗普联邦通信委员会，这一历史悠久的概念已变成为总统利益服务的政治武器。