Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not shy in her assessment of conservative extremists in an interview with MSNBC over the weekend. During an appearance on Inside With Jen Psaki, the New York Congresswoman pointed to FOX News and Tucker Carlson as part of what she sees as the problem.
“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t,” she said. “When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence — very clearly incitement of violence. And that is the line that we have to be willing to contend with.”
AOC also called out fellow members of Congress in Republican leadership for promoting extremism. FOX and Carlson were the only unelected officials that she commented on.
“We have very real issues with what is permissible on air. We saw that with Jan. 6 and we saw that in the lead up to Jan. 6 and how we navigate questions — not just a freedom of speech but also accountability for incitement of violence — this is the line that we have to really explore through law as well.”
The options for Congress are unclear. Not only do Republicans, who would be unlikely to vote for any law that places restrictions on FOX News, in control of the House of Representatives, but it is not accurate to say that FOX News is broadcast television.
The FCC, which is a government body, does regulate broadcast television. That gives the organization the ability to monitor and regulate what goes out over local broadcast channels. FOX News is a cable network.
“Unfortunately, the FCC does not have jurisdiction over cable networks,” former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler explained to NPR last month when asked why Carlson’s interpretations of the January 6, 2021 footage could not be regulated. “In fact, it doesn’t even have jurisdiction over networks like CBS and NBC who use the airwaves.”
There was a lot of reaction to Ocasio-Cortez’s commentary on social media. Predictably, a lot of it pointed out that she was incorrect about what power the government may have to regulate FOX News.
