WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The lone Democrat on the

Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday called on major

companies to stand up to threats from the Trump administration

against broadcasters and others.

FCC chair Brendan Carr, a Republican, just prior had

defended his recent comments pushing Disney ( DIS ) and local

broadcasters to stop airing "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

"We need corporations to stop capitulating. They are fraying

our First Amendment and our democracy every time they

capitulate," FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said.

"But I understand their businesses," she added. "They have

obligations to their shareholders, so it's also our obligation

not to threaten and not to have these complaints hanging over

people's heads."

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, a Texas

Republican, had said that Carr's threats could one day hurt

conservative media outlets if employed by a future Democratic

administration. "We don't want to see weaponization of

government by any administration against any perspective -- and

that's certainly not what we're doing here," Carr said.

On Friday, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar

Media Group ( NXST ) ended their preemptions of the late-night

show on their 70 ABC-affiliated stations covering nearly a

quarter of U.S. households, days after ABC had resumed

broadcasting Kimmel's show.

Throughout both his terms, Trump has threatened to rescind

licenses from local broadcast affiliates of the national

networks and earlier this month suggested Carr could rescind

licenses against broadcasters for mostly negative newscasts.

"This administration is utilizing the FCC regulatory

authority over licensees in order to censor content," Gomez

said.

Carr defended his comments, saying the FCC was enforcing the

public interest standard. He did not apologize for his "we can

do this the easy way or the hard way" comment directed at

broadcasters over the Kimmel show that came under heavy

criticism.

He said that comment was misrepresented and praised local

broadcasters for using their authority to preempt programming.

"Maybe now there is a permission structure here where they

feel like they or other groups or global stations can push

back," Carr said. "You've got to shift the power."