FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has warned broadcasters against airing "fake polls," attaching a regulatory warning to a complaint President Trump has made repeatedly about the news media.
In a post on X, Carr said many journalists and broadcasters have been "amplifying or airing these Polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics." He said they have done so without telling the public the polls lack "a scientific, accurate, or even real basis." Broadcasters, he wrote, are advised to avoid "News Distortions" and "Broadcast Hoaxes" by not airing polls that would violate their regulatory obligations. He also urged them to give viewers "additional context and information about Polls they have covered."
The factual backdrop is narrower than the warning suggests. In the most recent case, one small polling outfit was exposed as a hoax, and a similar incident occurred in August. News outlets reported on those hoaxes, which is the kind of context Carr says viewers need. On the evidence in his own post, the press supplied the correction he is asking for.
That makes the post read less like a response to a failure and more like a signal about how the chair sees his reach. The FCC licenses broadcasters, so a public advisory from its chairman carries weight with station owners even when it is not a rule and cites no penalty. "News distortion" is a term Carr has used before in complaints against national broadcast networks. Cable channels and websites sit outside that licensing leverage.
The open question is who decides what lacks a "scientific" basis. A pollster that fabricates its results is one thing. A legitimate poll with numbers the White House dislikes is another, and the post's language does not separate the two.