The letters: Representatives Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, both from California, sent the letters to AT&T, Verizon, Roku, Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Charter, DISH, Cox, Altice and Hulu, as well as to Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
“What moral or ethical principles (including those related to journalistic integrity, violence, medical information and public health) do you apply when deciding which channels to broadcast or when to take adverse actions against a channel?” asked the Democrats. They also asked operators if they are “planning to continue offering Fox News, Newsmax and OANN”.
What the Democrats said: Lawmakers pointed to concerns over how channels handle the November presidential election and Trump’s false allegations of victory that led to the January riot, as well as the pandemic. (Eshoo chairs the E&C health subcommittee.)
“Right-wing media outlets, such as Newsmax, One America News Network (OANN) and Fox News, all conveyed misinformation about the November 2020 elections,” wrote Eshoo and McNerney. “These same networks have also been key vectors for the dissemination of incorrect information related to the pandemic.”
Fox and Newsmax quickly expressed alarm about the Democrats’ efforts.
“For members of Congress, individually, to highlight the political discourse they dislike and to demand that cable TV distributors engage in discrimination from a point of view, sets a terrible precedent,” said Fox. Trump for the decision, noted that it was the most watched cable news channel in 2020 and said it clearly distinguishes news from opinions.
“The House Democrats’ attack on free speech and basic First Amendment rights should send chills down the spine of all Americans,” Newsmax said. “Newsmax reported fairly and accurately the allegations and claims made by both sides during the recent election dispute. We did not see the same balanced coverage when CNN and MSNBC pushed the Russian collusion hoax for years, showing off various allegations and interviews with Democratic leaders that have proven to be patently false. ”
OAN did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What is the next: House Energy and Commerce’s telecommunications subcommittee will hold a hearing on Wednesday dedicated to what it calls disinformation and disinformation hosted on cable and transmission networks, with a view to both attacking the Capitol and the pandemic. No one from the networks is listed among the witnesses.
“Freedom of expression scholars argue that for a democracy to work, informed debates and the marketplace of ideas must be able to function from a shared set of facts,” wrote the Democratic team in a memo released on Monday, arguing that cable TV operators and broadcasters “played a role in spreading the misinformation. ”
In recent years, lawmakers have largely targeted social media companies, rather than more traditional media companies, because of the spread of false information.