FCC chief says he will defer to Pentagon over execution broadcast

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said on October 9 that he would defer to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over whether U.S. television networks could air Nidal Hasan's planned execution.

In a CNBC interview, Carr said his understanding was that the execution would be livestreamed rather than shown on broadcast television. Asked about allowing a television broadcast, he said he would leave decisions about proceeding to Hegseth. Reuters reported his remarks on Friday.

Hegseth announced a day earlier that the firing-squad execution, scheduled for December 3, would be livestreamed. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted over the 2009 attack at Fort Hood in Texas that killed 13 people and wounded 32.

Reuters said ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox did not immediately answer questions about whether they planned to carry it. FCC expert Andrew Jay Schwartzman said the commission had no legal basis to order broadcasters to show the event or prohibit its broadcast. He distinguished that issue from the FCC's authority over obscenity.