Exclusive: Republicans huddle with FCC chair in closed-door meeting to dismantle DEI, liberal media machine

House Republicans met with FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Republican Study Committee Chair Rep. August Pfluger (Texas) on Wednesday to discuss the evolving media landscape under President Donald Trump's administration.

During the closed-door meeting that Blaze News was given exclusive access to, both Pfluger and Carr addressed concerns about the liberal bias in publicly funded platforms like NPR, as well as the importance of empowering local media.

Carr, who has been an FCC commissioner since 2017, homed in on the importance of free speech and the First Amendment and also of applying existing regulations evenly rather than to advance a political agenda.

'The RSC is committed to working alongside Chairman Carr to dismantle the censorship cartel, strengthen America's digital infrastructure through free-market principles, and restore free-speech rights for everyday Americans.'

"For too long in this government, particularly the last couple of years, your last name dictated how the government treated you," Carr said. "If your last name was Soros, the commission bent over backwards and gave you a special, unprecedented commission-level shortcut to buy 200 radio stations. If your last name was Musk, then you lost $800 million contracts that you lawfully got."

"Everybody now is going to get a fair shake going forward," Carr added.

In the meeting, Carr laid out a four-step plan to reduce media bias and restore the FCC's core principles, which include reining in Big Tech censorship, reinvigorating trust in national and local media, putting forward both economic and permitting reforms, and bolstering aspects of our national security.

With the support of Pfluger and RSC members, Carr is confident that he can accomplish these directives.

"We thank Chairman Carr for his bold leadership in confronting malign influences like George Soros that corrupt our media and silence conservative voices, and the committee fully supports his efforts to restore truth to our public disclosure while expanding broadband access to rural communities," Pfluger said.

"The RSC is committed to working alongside Chairman Carr to dismantle the censorship cartel, strengthen America's digital infrastructure through free-market principles, and restore free-speech rights for everyday Americans," Pfluger added.

Carr also spoke about some of the reforms he has already enacted. Prior to his becoming chair, Carr noted, DEI was the second-most highly prioritized core value of the FCC. Since then, Trump has issued an executive order uprooting DEI from all federal entities, and the FCC has followed suit.

"We've ended the FCC promotion of DEI," Carr said. "You would be outraged if you realized how much promoting DEI had been embedded in FCC work. ... We were spending millions and millions of dollars promoting DEI. Meanwhile, what fell by the wayside was the FCC's actual core work — and doing it competently — of connecting Americans."

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