“There’s a very healthy feedback loop when the local broadcasters could not just communicate their concerns to the national programmers but if need be, actually preempt,” said Carr, who has repeatedly expressed a desire to return to an era when stations had greater leverage against the networks. “I think we were better off. We’ve lost that.” FCC spokespeople didn’t respond to a request for comment this week about Carr’s plans or any concerns about the politics involved.

Under confidential contracts between the networks and their affiliate stations, stations can face financial consequences if they preempt programming more frequently than the terms allow. Other repercussions could include the loss of valuable network programs such as football games or even an end to their status as network affiliates. Carr has said those contracts have become unduly restrictive — and he has prodded network executives about what he called their attempts “to extract onerous financial and operational concessions” from stations.

Meanwhile, Carr’s team is reviewing possible ways the FCC can intervene to help local TV station owners — including, he said, a presumption intended to ensure that local broadcasters can preempt network programs without risking the loss of their affiliate agreements. The additional preemption leeway could be especially powerful in the hands of a station owner such as Nexstar, which under the merger would become the nation’s largest TV broadcaster, owning 259 stations that reach about 80 percent of U.S. households. And it would be yet another move by Carr to check the power of networks that Trump accuses of liberal bias.

Nexstar and fellow conservative broadcaster Sinclair already flexed their muscles in September by refusing for nine days to air Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show on ABC, amid criticism by Carr and other Republicans for his remarks about the killing of pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk. Making it even easier for stations to preempt the networks would help rebalance the media ecosystem, said Daniel Suhr, a conservative lawyer heading the Center for American Rights whose advocacy largely aligns with the FCC chair’s views. “Preemption is really a tool to reflect the values of individual markets that wouldn’t appreciate the content from Hollywood and New York, who find it offensive or insulting,” Suhr said.

“It is important at key moments, like we saw with Kimmel. And it’s one tool that does give affiliates some real leverage.” The FCC’s search for a “censorship backdoor” is motivating efforts to enhance local stations’ power over national programming, lone Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez told POLITICO. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Democrats see politics at play. “When the FCC’s campaign to cancel Jimmy Kimmel failed thanks to the loud, public outcry from local communities, the agency quietly went looking for a censorship backdoor,” Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner, told POLITICO in a statement Friday.

“That’s why it is suddenly very interested in using affiliate broadcasters to indirectly pressure networks into dropping programming it dislikes.” Gomez lamented the agency’s “obsession with how broadcasters cover this administration.” A growing giant The merger between Nexstar and Tegna, which the FCC approved last month, is on hold as a federal judge in California considers a legal challenge by Democratic state attorneys general and the satellite broadcaster DirecTV. But it’s gotten a vocal endorsement from Trump. “We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in February.

He added: “GET THAT DEAL DONE!” U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley extended his stay on the deal last week, leaving the merger in limbo as Nexstar appeals to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Public interest groups and the conservative cable company Newsmax are separately challenging the FCC’s approval, contending it would hurt media diversity and local journalism and result in higher cable fees. Nexstar has already closed the deal and taken ownership of Tegna, but it says it is complying with the judge’s directives to keep the two companies’ assets separate for now. As part of the FCC’s approval, Carr waved a congressionally imposed cap that says no station