Brendan Carr’s FCC is an anti-consumer, rights-trampling harassment machine

In less than 100 days the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) has been converted from a media and telecom watchdog into a bizarre, rights-trampling grievance machine built for one purpose: to coddle and protect the ego of President Donald J. Trump .

Media and telecom policy experts have been taken aback by the quick transformation under Chairman Brendan Carr , who they say has abused agency authority.

The move comes as the administration looks to cut already modest NPR and PBS funding.

Verizon (which is seeking a $20 billion merger with Frontier ) and Comcast (rumored to be eyeing a merger with T-Mobile) have both faced “investigations” by Carr for failing to embrace the administration’s assault on popular civil rights reforms.

Legal experts suggest Carr has no solid legal footing on which to penalize either company.

Putting too many eggs in the FCC basket is not a winning strategy for advocates for competition and consumer protection.

States facing costly new legal fights across healthcare and immigration may not have the attention, staff, or resources to pick up the slack.

Courts and federal agencies may also try to further curtail state rights, like Trump ’s first FCC did.