美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）委员戈麦斯呼吁美国广播电视协会（NAB）加大力度回应美国总统唐纳德·特朗普政府在11月3日中期选举前夕对主要新闻网络和广播电视台施加的压力。
of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called on the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to ramp up its response to pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump on major news networks and broadcast television stations in advance of the midterm elections on November 3.
戈麦斯周四在致该行业协会首席执行官兼总裁柯蒂斯·勒热的四页信函中表示：“如果我不直截了当地指出，你们的回应力度尚未与会员单位面临的挑战规模相匹配，那我就失职了。”
“I would not be doing my job if I did not say plainly that the volume of that response has not yet matched the scale of what your members are facing,” Gomez said in a four-page letter to the industry group’s CEO and President Curtis LeGeyt on Thursday.
戈麦斯指出，特朗普任命的委员卡拉近日声称，政府渠道在举足轻重的中期选举前播放“完全虚假的民调”可能违反其监管义务，中期选举将决定哪个政党控制美国国会两院。
Gomez pointed to a recent assertion by Trump-appointed Brenden Carr who claimed that administration channels could violate their regulatory obligations by airing “entirely fake polls” before the consequential midterm elections, which may determine which political party controls both houses of the US Congress.
卡拉在社交媒体平台上发帖称：“许多记者和广播从业者在放大或播放这些民调时，不顾基本的新闻职业道德，且未告知公众这些民调缺乏科学性、准确性，甚至没有真实依据。”半岛电视台曾联系联邦通信委员会，询问卡拉指控的所谓播放虚假民调的记者和广播机构具体是谁、涉及哪些民调，但该机构未回应半岛电视台的询问。新闻自由基金会倡导主任塞斯·斯特恩批评了卡拉的言论。
“Many journalists and broadcasters have been amplifying or airing these Polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics and without informing the public that those Polls lack a scientific, accurate, or even real basis,” Carr said in a post on the social media platform Al Jazeera reached out to the FCC for clarity on which journalists and broadcasters allegedly aired fake polls and which polls he was referring to, but the agency did not address Al Jazeera’s inquiry. Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, criticised Carr’s comments.
斯特恩在一份声明中说：“布伦丹·卡拉不是新闻警察。就全国范围而言，他几乎是最不具备资格对新闻界说教新闻职业道德的人。关键在于，他每次攻击新闻界，都是因为报道对他的老板不利。”
“Brendan Carr is not the journalism police. And he is just about the least qualified person in the country to lecture the press about journalistic ethics. The tell is that literally every time he attacks the press, it’s because of reporting that was unfavorable to his boss,” Stern said in a statement.
卡拉在社交媒体帖子中表示：“建议广播机构避免从事新闻扭曲或播放广播骗局。”
Carr said in his social media post that “Broadcasters are advised to avoid engaging in News Distortions or running Broadcast Hoaxes”.
“本届政府正在开展一项协调一致、全政府范围的努力，旨在将媒体重塑为其认可的传声筒，而联邦通信委员会已成为其最活跃的工具之一。这正在多个战线上展开。最肆无忌惮的做法之一，是该委员会最近暗示：播放不符合本届政府偏好叙事的民调结果的广播机构，可能面临联邦通信委员会的新闻失真或广播恶作剧调查，”戈麦斯在信中表示。
“This Administration is running a coordinated, government-wide effort to reshape the media into its sanctioned messenger, and the Federal Communications Commission has become one of its most active instruments. That is playing out across several fronts. One of the most brazen efforts involves how this Commission has recently suggested that broadcasters who air polling that does not align with this Administration’s preferred narrative could face an FCC news distortion or broadcast hoax investigation,” Gomez said in her letter.
戈麦斯补充说，新闻失真要具备可诉性，举证门槛很高，仅适用于广播机构“明知故播关于犯罪或灾难的虚假信息，且该广播直接导致公共安全或财产遭受即时且重大损害”的情形。戈麦斯还补充说，除非有确凿证据，否则该机构无权采取行动。
Gomez added that there is a high barrier for proof of news distortion for it to be actionable, saying that it only applies when a broadcaster “knowingly airs false information about a crime or catastrophe and that broadcast directly causes immediate and substantial harm to public safety or property”. Gomez added that the agency does not have the authority to act unless there is clear evidence.
“播放本届政府恰好不喜欢的民调结果，远远达不到这些标准，”戈麦斯说。
“Reporting the results of a poll this Administration happens to dislike does not come close to meeting those standards,” Gomez said.