Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has called on the FCC to investigate a TV station she claims has distorted news coverage of her and her office, but one commissioner has already ripped the request as being a “chilling and direct attack on free speech and journalistic freedom.”
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican, issued a statement that said“The State’s Attorney’s Office complaint alleges that there is ‘troubling, abhorrent, and outright dangerous’ conduct going on here. They are correct in this respect — it is the conduct of the State’s Attorney’s Office that is troubling, abhorrent, and outright dangerous.”
In her complaint, filed Friday, Mosby alleges that WBFF “persistently follows a disconcerting and dangerous pattern: beginning with a slanted, rigged, misleading, or inflammatory headline; followed by a conspiracy theory; and supported with guest commentary from disgruntled ex-employees or political opponents that lend false credibility to their biased coverage or omission of facts.
“Utilizing this pattern of practice in their broadcasts, citizens are not only consistently misinformed about the basis and intent of prosecutorial policies, additionally the merit of criminal convictions are distorted to detract from the public good championed by prosecutors.”
Mosby attempted to tie the Fox affiliate’s coverage to Fox News Channel, despite the fact that WBFF is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox has no oversight of the station’s news coverage.
Her complaint also called into question a statement of a guest on a national program, assigning blame to WBFF for the statement being aired.
She also stated in the complaint that “WBFF deliberately broadcast the home address of State’s Attorney Mosby on live TV during one of its news segments” and “made a formal inquiry attempting to find out the schools the SA’s children attended.”
Mosby says those actions have prompted death threats and hate mail directed at her.
Executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, Dan Shelley, has also responded to the matter with a letter criticizing Mosby’s complaint being sent to the FCC.
