FCC Chairman Just Put Broadcasters on Notice Over Their Fake Polls

Kristen Welker told America Trump's endorsements had "mixed results."

Trump fired back on Truth Social and threatened to report her to federal regulators.

Now the FCC chairman just confirmed the fake polls plaguing your midterms are about to become a federal problem.

Carr Says Broadcasters Are Breaking Their Deal With America

Brendan Carr sat down for "The Sunday Briefing" and didn't hedge.

He said broadcast TV isn't like cable or streaming.

Stations operate on public airwaves handed to them by the FCC – for free.

"The one thing that President Trump gets, fundamentally, is that broadcast TV is completely different than other forms of distribution, including cable," Carr said.

"So many broadcasters right now, they break the deal that they cut with the American people," Carr said. "They get billions of dollars in taxpayer, effectively, subsidized distribution."

The Welker Fight That Started It

This didn't come out of nowhere.

Welker, on a local NBC affiliate, said Trump's primary endorsements produced "mixed results."

She then had to admit his pick to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline Graham, won her primary handily.

Trump wasn't having it.

He posted that Welker had committed a "purposeful inaccuracy" and said she'd be reported to the FCC for "rebuke or punishment."

NBC circled the wagons immediately, with a network spokesperson calling Welker "one of the best in the business."

Of course they did. That's what legacy media always does when one of their own gets caught spinning for the wrong side.

Fake Polls Already Cost Democrats Once This Year

Here's what makes Carr's timing hard to ignore.

Three weeks before he sat down with Fox News, a polling outfit called Median Strategies admitted it had been fabricating election surveys and calling it a "social experiment."

The fake polls showed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Wisconsin Democrat Francesca Hong crushing their opponents by wide margins.

Real results told a different story.

The company folded rather than answer questions, telling reporters it was "not seeking publicity or attribution."

Those fabricated numbers didn't stay contained to a press release.

Local TV newscasts aired them. Social media spread them. Voters absorbed them as fact before anyone checked.

That's the exact suppression mechanism Carr is now targeting – except this time the vehicle isn't a shady LLC, it's a broadcast network with a federal license.

This Isn't Carr's First Warning Shot

Trump's FCC chairman has done this before, and broadcasters know it.

Back in March, Carr threatened to pull licenses from stations airing what he called "hoaxes and news distortions" about the Iran war, pointing to trust in legacy media cratering to just 9%.

He's also gone after PBS and NPR over editorial decisions tied to a BBC documentary neither network even aired.

The law's been on the books since 1969: lie about the news, and you can lose the license – cable, streaming, and newspapers don't carry that risk, but broadcasters signed up for it the day they took the free spectrum.

Carr's argument is simple: NBC, ABC, and CBS took the deal. Now they answer for what they put on the air.

FCC Guidance Is Coming Before the Midterms

Carr didn't dance around what happens next.

"I think President Trump is over the target, and we're looking at a lot of actions," Carr said.

He confirmed the agency may formally remind broadcasters of their obligations on fake polling – specifically polling designed to suppress turnout heading into the fall.

Predictably, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez rushed to X to call it a threat to "press freedom" and "democracy."

Gomez didn't say a word about Median Strategies rigging real elections – the outrage only shows up when it's her own side's broadcasters getting checked.

Nobody's stopping a network from reporting the news. Carr's talking about broadcasters pushing phony numbers to convince conservative voters the race is already lost before they even get to the polls.

That's not journalism. That's a suppression tactic wearing a press badge, and Median Strategies already proved how it works in practice.

Trump's endorsement record backs him up here – Darline Graham won her primary after he backed her, the same race Welker downplayed on air.

If the FCC follows through before November, broadcasters relying on friendly numbers to shape the midterms are going to have a much harder time getting away with it.

Sources:

• Madison Colombo, "FCC boss signals major crackdown on TV networks pushing 'fake polls' ahead of the midterms," Fox News, September 7, 2026.
• Staff, "Federal Communications Commission plans to warn broadcasters against airing 'fake polls'," The Washington Times, September 6, 2026.
• Paul Steinhauser and William La Jeunesse, "Mysterious polling firm behind fake election surveys closes after admitting 'social experiment'," Fox News, August 18, 2026.
• Staff, "For Trump's FCC Chairman, Trolling Liberals Is the Point of His Threat to Pull Licenses of TV Networks That Air 'Fake News' About Iran War," Variety, 2026.
• Congressional Research Service, "Communications Act of 1934 – News Distortion Policy," congress.gov, 2026.