FCC Chair Brendan Carr recently said there are “legitimate competition concerns” about Netflix’s proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. studios and HBO Max.

Here’s the twist: the FCC has no authority to review or approve the deal.

The FCC regulates broadcast licenses, which aren’t part of this transaction. But Carr made public comments anyway, raising red flags about consolidation in the streaming market. And his comments were picked up as if they had regulatory teeth.

So what’s the logical structure here — and where does it go wrong?