In late February, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr provided an update on the agency’s investigation into Soros and his influence over local radio stations during a meeting with Republican lawmakers. Carr met with members of the Republican Study Committee, a group of 175 House Republicans, at their annual closed-door lunch.
A source told Fox News that Carr was set to brief lawmakers on the quick purchase of the radio stations. Carr also discussed broader strategies to counter left-wing media, the report said.
The focus of the GOP congressional probe regarding the purchase focused on Soros Fund Management’s stake in the sale. The investment firm holds a substantial share of foreign ownership, which triggered concerns that content broadcast by the stations could allow foreign governments to exert undue influence on the American public.
“The FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing a transaction,” Carr told lawmakers last fall regarding the sale.
“We have established over a number of years one way in which you can get approval from the FCC when you have an excess of 25 percent foreign ownership, which this transaction does,” Carr added. “It seems to me that the FCC is poised to create, for the first time, an entirely new shortcut.”