By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – The chair of the Federal Communications Commission said on Friday that he would defer to the Pentagon on whether US networks could air a planned December 3 military execution, which would be an unprecedented broadcast.
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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009, would be livestreamed.
Carr told CNBC it was his understanding this would not air on broadcast TV. But asked if he would allow it to be aired, he said: “Ultimately we’re going to defer to Secretary Hegseth and you know his decisions on how to move forward with this.”
An FCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they are considering airing the execution.
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Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and expert on FCC issues, said there is no legal basis for the commission to intervene in a broadcaster’s decision on whether to air a live execution.
“There is absolutely no justification in the Communications Act or the Constitution that would allow the FCC to tell broadcasters to carry or not carry an actual event,” he said, adding, “there is no basis for the FCC to dictate content or to prohibit content short of obscenity.”
A 2007 report from the FCC on violence on television said the agency did not have the authority to regulate violent content. The report said “violent speech and depictions of violence have been found by the courts to be protected by the First Amendment.”
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(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and Jonathan Spicer )
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