FCC chair says MSNBC misled public about Abrego Garcia

• FCC Chair Brendan Carr accused Comcast-owned MSNBC of misleading reporting. He claimed the outlet omitted critical facts in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s immigration case and failed to operate in the interest of the public.
• Carr said media license holders are obligated by law to serve the public interest and not distort news.
• Carr’s criticism came after President Donald Trump called Comcast’s leadership and legal strategy a disgrace.

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FCC chair Brendan Carr on Wednesday, April 16, accused Comcast-owned news outlets, including MSNBC, of distorting coverage in a high-profile immigration case. Carr said the outlets misled the public about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant in the country illegally who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration.

Accusations Comcast is facing from Carr

“Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public — implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law-abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man,’” Carr wrote on X. “When the truth comes out, they ignore it.”

Carr said Comcast — like all media companies that operate licensed news divisions — is required under federal law to serve the public interest.

“News distortion doesn’t cut it,” he added.

Carr defended the government’s actions in Abrego Garcia’s case and detailed the immigrant’s alleged criminal background.

“Abrego Garcia came to America illegally from El Salvador, was validated as a member of the violent MS-13 gang — a transnational criminal organization — and was denied bond by an immigration court for failure to show he would not pose a danger to others,” Carr wrote.

He questioned why Comcast-owned outlets did not include these details in their coverage.

“Why does Comcast ignore these facts of obvious public interest?” he asked.

The Trump administration said Abrego Garcia will not be returning to the United States. There is an ongoing effort from some Maryland Democrats to bring Abrego Garcia back.

Trump makes social post over Comcast coverage

Carr’s comments follow similar criticism from President Donald Trump, who criticized NBC News and MSNBC in a social media post Tuesday. Trump’s post did not mention Abrego Garcia’s case, but he accused Comcast of trying to avoid legal liability through corporate restructuring.

“Comcast, which also has the ailing network known as NBC, is trying to stay away from lawsuits by disassociating NBC from MSNBC, but it won’t work,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Comcast, the owner of both, and its chairman, Brian Roberts, are a disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting!!!”

A precedent of network criticism

President Donald Trump has a history of criticizing major broadcast networks and repeatedly called for FCC investigations into their operations.

In October 2017, he suggested that NBC’s broadcast license should be challenged due to what he described as “fake news” reporting.

More recently, in October 2024, Trump called for CBS to lose its license over an edited “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. He accused the network of creating “the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History” by editing the vice president’s comments to allegedly make her appear more coherent.

While editing video interviews for brevity is a common media industry practice, doing so to alter the content of one’s message is seen as unethical.

Trump’s supporters suggested the networks are breaking FCC guidelines by not fairly covering the president, while critics said licenses being revoked would threaten press freedom and be a misuse of regulatory powers.