Brendan Carr fcc
===
trifecta
primary 2 25 on coup press suppress --> FASCISM
SEE SOCIAL MEDIA BIAS BS SECTION 230
see MEDIA CONSOLIDATION MERGER --> FASCISM
THREAT TO PULL LICENSES
BENNY JOHNSON
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DISNEY CAVE TO BOYCOTT AND CELEBS 2% MKT CAP?
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rww -->
10 26
- Hafiz Rashid @ The New Republic: FCC Threatens Broadcasters Over Polls Predicting Disaster for GOP
The Federal Communications Commission is ramping up Trump’s war on “fake polls” as it looks to be a bloodbath for Republicans this election.
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HE HAS TO ACT ON THIS?
AN 8 26
President Donald Trump's list of failures continues to grow, and as a new analysis from MS NOW argued, he has now resorted to seeking punishments for those who tell the truth about his unpopularity.
In a piece published Monday morning, Steven Benen, a longtime contributor to the network and producer for host Rachel Maddow, discussed Trump's recent demand that his FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, investigate NBC and anchor Kristin Welker after comments she made about him having a "mixed" endorsement record in the midterms so far. Trump accused this of being "purposeful inaccuracy" that ought to be investigated.
“How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves?” Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday. “Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment... The Press is a Disgrace to our Nation, and I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously.”
Benen called this demand from Trump "brazen nonsense," and highlighted how ridiculous the anger seemed given that Welker's comment only came "in passing during a live shot on NBC’s local D.C. affiliate." He further argued that the post from the president "reflects an inherently authoritarian worldview — one in which media professionals are supposed to fear federal investigations for telling the public the truth."
He also highlighted a follow-up post Trump made on Sunday, accusing the media of using "fake polls," which just so happen to be the ones in which his approval and popularity are faltering.
"The missive came five days after the Republican concocted a deeply weird conspiracy theory alleging that the national surveys conducted by major independent news organizations, universities and research institutions have been secretly being coordinated by Democratic officials, as part of a fiendish and undisclosed plot to make GOP voters feel discouraged," Benen detailed. "There are, according to the president’s same pitch, a series of undisclosed polls that paint an entirely different picture about public attitudes, but that we’re apparently not allowed to see for reasons Trump hasn’t explained."
He added later: "Time will tell whether Carr and his colleagues take the president’s directives seriously, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: Confronted with data showing his broad unpopularity, Trump can either (a) change course; (b) accept the fact that his presidency lacks public support; or (c) pursue investigations into journalists and independent entities that have dared to present him with information he doesn’t want to see or hear. The fact that he’s choosing door No. 3 isn’t surprising, but it does offer a timely reminder about his twisted perspective."
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BIG TECH OVERSIGHT 8 26
Trump's "Authoritarian Takeover" of the Media, ABC Suing FCC & the Meta Trial: Jessica González
Trump's "Authoritarian Takeover" of the Media, ABC Suing FCC & the Meta Trial: Jessica González
Aug 19, 2026 Latest Shows
Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-de... We look at major media news with Jessica González, co-CEO of the advocacy organization Free Press. She discusses the landmark lawsuit against Meta for making its social media platforms addictive for young people, efforts to halt the Paramount-Warner Bros. megamerger, and Disney's lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission over what it calls the Trump administration's "retaliatory campaign" against the ABC television network. González says President Donald Trump's "authoritarian takeover attempt of our media system" must be opposed. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
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WSJ ~
an 8 26
Trump’s war against ABC and Disney for platforming comedian Jimmy Kimmel has boomeranged on him, with the entertainment behemoth suing Trump’s FCC for violating their First Amendment rights. More recently, the FCC has challenged ABC’s broadcasting licenses.
Even a conservative newspaper is siding with ABC and Disney over the Trump administration.
“ABC sued the FCC on Tuesday for ‘coercing and retaliating’ because it ‘refuses to bow to the Administration’s demands,’” wrote The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Tuesday. “The lawsuit says the government has violated its First Amendment rights ‘by launching pretextual regulatory investigations and threatening the Stations’ valuable broadcast licenses.’”
Describing FCC Chairman Brendan Carr as a “mob-boss” and agreeing with the premise of the lawsuit, the Journal opined that Trump’s FCC is indeed violating “the First Amendment by letting the FCC interfere in editorial judgments and suppress disfavored content and viewpoints. ABC’s lawsuit says the FCC’s pressure has resulted in it ‘passing on further consideration of booking several political candidates,’ and none have appeared on the program since February.”
The Journal added that Carr once criticized Democratic administrations for violating free speech rights, and concluded that “in 2020 he lambasted a progressive media group for petitioning the FCC to censor broadcasts of Mr. Trump’s Covid press conferences, calling it a ‘dangerous and sweeping attempt by the left to weaponize the FCC.’
"It’s a shame Mr. Carr won’t defend ABC’s free-speech rights today," the board added.
Trump’s war against Kimmel began in September when he falsely claimed that the talk show host had disparaged the late right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated. ABC initially took Kimmel’s show off the air but reversed course after a mass protest.
"But then, you know what happened?” Kimmel said at the time. “A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September, it was a September miracle. But the holiday does seem to come earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it? Millions and millions of people stood up and said: ‘No, this is not acceptable’ ... Our show came back stronger than ever. We won, the president lost and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking.”
He added, “That’s a word, right? I used it properly?"
In April Kimmel again was in the spotlight when the administration falsely claimed that one of his jokes had inspired an assassination attempt against the president.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” First Lady Melania Trump declared on social media at the time. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”
She continued, “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
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AN 5 26
Trump censorship chief: 'I think everything the president posts is appropriate' - Alternet.org
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NFL JEFF MILLER LOBBY
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[### Greg Watson - Chief of Staff, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr
LinkedIn · Greg Watson
1.6K+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-watson-b4291bb3)
Washington, District of Columbia, United States · Chief of Staff · Federal Communications Commission
Chief of Staff, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr · Experience: Federal Communications Commission · Education: East Carolina University · Location: Washington ...
[### Greg Watson The Federalist Society
https://fedsoc.org › bio › greg-watson-2](https://fedsoc.org/bio/greg-watson-2)
Jun 11, 2024 — Prior to joining Commissioner Carr's office, Greg served as a Policy Advisor to the Chief Technology Officer of the United States in the ...
Prior to joining Commissioner Carr’s office, Greg served as a Policy Advisor to the Chief Technology Officer of the United States in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he led efforts to increase broadband access through the American Broadband Initiative. He was also involved with the Administration’s efforts to advance America’s leadership in 5G. Prior to his tenure at the White House, Greg was an advisor to Congressman Steve Scalise and the House Energy and Commerce Committee where he handled a broad range of communications and technology issues. Before moving to Washington, DC, he was a campaign aide to Congressman Fred Upton. Greg is a graduate of East Carolina University, where he studied History and Political Science.
[### Greg Watson LegiStorm
https://www.legistorm.com › bio › Gregory_Alan_Watson](https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/231349/Gregory_Alan_Watson.html)
Chief of Staff to Chair Carr. Federal Communications Commission Office ... Caught Our Eye. Committee aide with FCC ties tunes in to telecom lobby. Posted ...Read more
[### New FCC chair names key staff positions - NCS
NewscastStudio
https://www.newscaststudio.com › fcc-trump-47-staff](https://www.newscaststudio.com/2025/01/21/fcc-trump-47-staff/)
Jan 21, 2025 — Greg Watson, chief of staff for the Office of Chairman Carr. Watson will serve as the chief of staff for the Office of FCC Chairman Carr. In ...Read more
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AN 5 26
ABC strikes back at Trump’s FCC - Alternet.org
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rww
03/30/2026
by
- Kathryn Wilkens @ Mediaite: ‘Trump Is Winning’: FCC Chair Boasts He’s Remaking the Media by Pushing Out Left-Leaning Figures
During a Friday CPAC appearance, FCC Chair Brendan Carr bragged that he’s remaking the media by pushing out left-leaning figures, declaring, “[President Donald] Trump is winning.”
- Patrick Marley @ The Washington Post: He took Pelosi’s lectern on Jan. 6. Now he’s running for office.
Adam Johnson has rarely voted and embraces his role as clown prince of Jan. 6. Floridians will decide whether a man who tried to upend democracy can help lead one.
- Hafiz Rashid @ The New Republic: January 6 Rioters Pardoned by Trump Sue Over “Emotional Distress”
January 6 insurrectionists say police used excessive force while trying to stop them from storming the Capitol.
- Jason Wilson @ The Guardian: College Republicans director made racist and sexist remarks on live streams
Review of Kai Schwemmer’s broadcasts undermines claim ‘process of growth’ had led him to abandon bigoted views.
- Lydia O'Connor @ HuffPost: A Running List Of The Totally Real, Not At All Fake Awards Donald Trump Has Received
The president is the "undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal," and he has the trophy to prove it.
- Amogh Dimri @ The Atlantic: Nick Fuentes’s Strategy is Working
Viral clips of the far-right white supremacist are growing his audience.
- Ben Jacobs @ Slate: CPAC Now Has No Trump and No Swag
CPAC was never cool, but it was once exciting. In 2026 the conference was no longer a hotbed of insurgents against a Republican establishment, let alone a place where factions of conservatives maneuvered for dominance. It wasn’t even an out-and-out MAGA pep rally that celebrated the ascension of Trump. It didn’t have a clear function anymore. Instead, it just felt like an event held out of habit.
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PRESS SUPPRESS MMA
The Trump administration demands American press propagandize his Iran war
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/16/26
We are two weeks into President Donald Trump’s ill-conceived war of choice against Iran, and the president is already suggesting his administration should shut down news outlets for producing critical reports — or even consider treason charges based on spurious claims of collusion with America’s enemies.
Though U.S. and Israeli forces have successfully bombed a wide array of Iranian targets and assassinated its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has followed through with its strategic doctrine by closing the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down a major channel for the global energy and fertilizer trades.
As a result, Trump is begging/demanding foreign navies bail him out by sending ships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, deploying additional troops and ships to the region for unknown reasons, lifting sanctions on Russia in hopes of lowering the price of oil, denying reports that a Pentagon investigation preliminarily found the U.S. military accidentally incinerated scores of Iranian schoolchildren with an errant missile — and railing against the American press for refusing to report that the war is going well.
Meanwhile, Trump’s hand-picked Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, is signaling to broadcast stations that they will face regulatory retribution if they don’t “correct course."
It’s all part of the authoritarian playbook Trump wields against news outlets that produce anything less than Fox News-style propaganda. The protections of the First Amendment ensure that those outlets could likely prevail in court — but fighting is expensive, and over the course of Trump’s second term so far, the corporate moguls who control them have proven unnervingly unwilling to do so.
### Trump rails against press, demands government retribution
Last week, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly bemoaned that the network’s coverage is offering lockstep support for Trump’s Iranian “excursion.”
“Now it's, you cheerlead the war, support the military industrial complex, or … you're a loser,” she said on her podcast. “It's infuriating because we're talking about life and death. We're talking about American life or death. And this is a dereliction of duty.”
As Kelly suggests, when Trump turns his television to Fox, he is getting unhinged validation of his efforts. But the president is not satisfied with that. He wants every American news outlet producing the same Fox-style war propaganda.
Trump used what he baselessly described as “an intentionally misleading headline by the Fake News Media” to denounce the press in a Saturday morning Truth Social post.
“The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (in particular), and other Lowlife 'Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War,” he wrote. “Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts! They are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause the United States of America.”
In another post on Sunday evening, the president baselessly claimed that Iran had been “working in close coordination with the Fake News Media” to promote a fake, AI-generated video depicting a U.S. ship burning in the Persian Gulf.
“The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!” Trump posted. “The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets.”
(In reality, responsible news outlets have been debunking that video, not distributing it, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.)
“It's pretty criminal because our media companies, who have no credibility whatsoever, are putting out information that they know is false, and it's a very dangerous thing for the country,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One later that night, “I think they could be in serious jeopardy."
Trump’s weekend anti-press binge followed coverage complaints from Pete Hegseth, the former Fox & Friends weekend host who now heads the Pentagon, who used a press conference on Friday morning to gripe extensively about the banners he has seen on TV news coverage.
Yet some in this crew, in the press, just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look up at the TV and they see banners, they see headlines. I used to be in that business. And I know that everything is written intentionally.
For example, a banner or a headline: “Mideast war intensifies,” splashing on the screen the last couple of days, alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit, because that's what they do. What should the banner read instead?
How about, ‘Iran increasingly desperate,’ because they are. They know it and so do you, if it can be admitted.
Hegseth posited that an “actual patriotic press” would produce such coverage. He also decried a CNN report detailing how the Trump administration “failed to fully account for the potential consequences” of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” he commented, referencing a Trump ally’s effort to take over CNN’s parent company with the help of the administration.
### With Carr, a cause for alarm
It is disturbing enough that the president of the United States is a deranged authoritarian who responds to a faltering war by ranting about its coverage. But what makes it worse is that his administration is filled with apparatchicks eager to carry out his demands for retribution.
Carr, who was reportedly with the president at his Mar-A-Lago club over the weekend, responded to Trump’s initial post complaining about journalists who “actually want us to lose the War” by threatening the licenses of broadcast stations that produce critical coverage.
“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not."
Carr was nonspecific about how broadcasters could avoid reprisal (and Trump had lashed out at newspapers, not broadcast networks, in his post), but he’s a hack who is typically willing to carry Trump’s water no matter how absurd the underlying complaint may be.
Trump signaled his approval for Carr’s threats in his Sunday evening “TREASON” post, writing, “I am so thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations."
Stelter, in an extensive report drawing on comments from First Amendment lawyers, notes that Carr “has very little power to follow through” and that television stations, if they are willing to fight such attempted reprisals in court, “are not at serious risk of being banned."
“Any government action against a licensee would cause a protracted legal battle, even more so given the current media-bashing climate, because a station would likely cite Trump’s retributive streak and mount a First Amendment case,” Stelter wrote.
There is a strong argument that stations would be victorious if they fought Carr’s attempts to strip their licenses. But there were also strong arguments that ABC News and CBS News would be victorious if they fought the lawsuits Trump filed over their coverage in 2024. The problem was that rather than going to court on behalf of a free press, Disney and Paramount, their parent companies, decided it was in the interest of their broader business holdings to fold.
The advantage Trump and Carr have in their fight to cudgel the press into line is that it can be very expensive to fight the federal government on behalf of the First Amendment — and what the last year shows is that many people who own or control news outlets don’t care enough about such principles to do it. And Disney and Paramount had much deeper pockets to pay lawyers than an individual local broadcast news station does. Even Sinclair Broadcast Network, which owns or operates nearly 200 stations across the country, has a market cap of around $1 billion, compared to roughly $175 billion for Disney.
If Carr threatens the licenses of Sinclair stations, are its pro-Trump owners really going to go to the mat for the free press rather than using his complaints as an opportunity to push coverage even further to the right?
It’s also worth taking seriously Trump’s threats of treason charges against news outlets. The Justice Department is now staffed by loyalists like former Fox host Jeanine Pirro who are willing to follow through on his demands for political prosecutions. Those efforts keep failing — but they raise the cost of dissent and thus chill free speech.
And that’s what the president wants, as Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt made clear when she channeled him on Monday morning.
“The president has said enough with this coverage from other networks that are not telling you the truth, that are so negative about what’s going on,” she said. “This is a pro-America fight, and every network needs to get on board with that."
And if they aren’t, there will be consequences.
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POYNTER
“We are the anti-fake news.’ Nexstar appeals to Trump while seeking a merger with Tegna
The broadcaster is pressing the FCC to fast-track a $6.2B deal that would expand its reach to more than half of US households
By: Al Tompkins
November 19, 2025
Usually — and these are unusual times — when media companies buy and sell each other, the paperwork they file with the Federal Communications Commission reads more like a legal brief: dry, technical and anchored in facts and statistics meant to justify the transfer of broadcast licenses.
That’s why Nexstar’s filing with the FCC this week is noteworthy. Nexstar chair and CEO Perry Sook went out of his way to praise President Donald Trump while asking regulators to approve a $6.2 billion deal to buy rival Tegna. The merger would make Nexstar by far the country’s biggest owner of local TV stations and would require the government to relax long-standing rules limiting station ownership. And Nexstar is pushing the FCC to move quickly, something the agency rarely does.
The application, filed Tuesday, includes multiple nods to the president and the GOP-controlled commission:
Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna is vitally important to the future of local television and local journalism. We are grateful that the Trump administration and the FCC recognize that the current television ownership regulations are outdated and do not reflect the competitive media landscape as it has evolved over the past 25+ years. Like the Trump administration, we are focused on achieving deregulation, and we continue to advocate for the elimination of the antiquated constraints on local television ownership as the best solution to level the competitive playing field for all media.
Nexstar’s filing also adopts buzzword language that Trump often uses:
To be clear, in an age of disinformation and political agendas, we are the anti-fake news. Our news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices — journalists who live in the community — not a chat-bot or social media influencers. And yet, we are prohibited from broadcasting trusted local news and programming to hundreds of communities across the country because of antiquated regulatory constraints.
To achieve fast approval, Nexstar is asking the usually slow-moving FCC to bypass “major barriers that prevent us from competing fairly including with legacy media and Big Tech.” That is legal-speak for a request to waive or eliminate the ownership cap that bars any owner from reaching more than 39% of U.S. households.
Nexstar is already at the 39% threshold. Adding 64 Tegna stations in 51 markets would grow its portfolio to 265 stations and push its reach to almost 55% of U.S. homes. Previous FCC commissions have taken months, even years, to sort through the implications of multiple station ownership in a single market.
Sook said approval is “absolutely crucial” and “urgently needed.” The filing added, “Despite Nexstar’s and Tegna’s positions as industry leaders, both are susceptible to intense market forces conspiring against their ability to sustain operations at their current level.”
The Nexstar-Tegna proposal arrives as another major broadcaster, Sinclair Broadcasting, makes a move of its own. Earlier this week, the Trump-friendly company purchased 8% of rival E.W. Scripps, signaling interest in a future merger. Scripps responded coldly to the unsolicited investment but did not shut the door to entertaining a better deal. Like Nexstar, Sinclair’s hopes also ride on the FCC lifting the ownership cap.
In recent statements to shareholders, leaders at both companies have suggested they believe the FCC may relax ownership limits in early 2026.
Editor’s note: The normally reliable FCC website had not posted Nexstar’s filing as of publication, with updates delayed by the government shutdown. We will add a link once the FCC makes the document available.}:
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NOTE TOM SHYDER ON LOCAL MEDIA
an 11 25
Two powerful groups of media executives very friendly to President Donald Trump are currently embroiled in a fight that puts FCC chair Brendan Carr in an awkward position, reports Politico's John Hendel.
"The nation’s largest TV station owners want Carr’s Federal Communications Commission to loosen the rules that limit how many stations a single company can operate, a goal that many conservatives have been pressing for years," Hendel writes.
These owners, however, have a "formidable opponent in Trump confidant Chris Ruddy, the majority owner of Newsmax Media, who wants to keep the rules in place and now appears to be making headway with the president," he explains.
Trump took to Truth Social Sunday to demonstrate that headway, Hendel notes.
"NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS,” Trump wrote, "echoing Ruddy’s argument that removing the ownership cap would hurt conservatives," Hendel explains.
“If anything, make them SMALLER!” Trump added.
Carr, Hendel writes, "has shown a knack for disruptive, MAGA-pleasing culture-war moves, like his public upbraiding of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and accusing '60 Minutes' of being unfriendly to conservatives," but now he's conflicted.
"Carr has signaled he may want to change the 21-year-old limit on TV station ownership, which was intended to prevent any one broadcaster from too much power over what Americans see on television," Hendel explains. "Loosening the ownership rule would allow right-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group to expand."
Large TV station owners are hitting a growth limit, Hendel writes, so "a larger cap would give more power to station owners — seen by many conservatives as an ideological counterweight to the mainstream national networks that control TV programming."
Newsmax's Ruddy, however, is standing in the way, Hendel says.
"Ruddy is trying to block any change, arguing that the cap — which limits a broadcaster’s reach to 39 percent of U.S. households — preserves the right market balance between TV broadcasters and cable outlets, and allows a greater mix of voices," he writes.
“It’s not going to work,” Ruddy tells Politico. "The president doesn’t want this, and so I have no doubt that he will not support the FCC going to extraordinary but potentially illegal lengths.”
Joining Ruddy is Charles Herring, president of the pro-Trump One America News Network (OANN) cable channel, who, Hendel writes, "shares a marketplace wariness of TV station owners gobbling up too much power."
“Independent [and] diverse voices will disappear,” wrote Herring in an X post.
Under Trump, this has turned "into a political tug-of-war and an influence battle between big names on the right," Hendel says.
Former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer recently wrote an op-ed in right-wing outlet The Daily Caller in which he argued that Carr should lift the cap.
“Conservatives who believe in free enterprise should not be vocally encouraging Big Brother to continue barring broadcast TV companies like Sinclair and Nexstar from competing in the free market,” argued Spicer, a contributor to Nexstar’s cable network NewsNation.
Nexstar, Hendel notes, is "trying to usher through a $6.2 billion deal to buy rival station owner Tegna, a merger that would only be possible if Carr relaxes the cap. The new company would operate 265 TV stations, reaching more than half the country."
Ruddy, however, says "that the FCC is working to go against the interests of the president and his supporters — and really against most consumers.”
“We have a history of big companies going in and giving conservative think tanks money to do reports and stand on issues,” Ruddy adds “And it’s not working.”
Through all this, Trump "is being pulled in both directions on an issue he cares a great deal about: what’s on television," he writes.
“If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy,” Trump wrote.
"That will likely give broadcasters and their conservative allies room to try to counter Ruddy’s narrative — and some are already casting the issue accordingly," Hendel explains.
On Monday, Nexstar said that "Americans want more access to local news and a variety of voices without the filter of the coastal elites."
For now, the person truly stuck in the middle is Carr.
"Carr’s path to lifting the cap is uncertain, and his own staff say they’re likely to end up in court over the issue. Detractors don’t even believe the agency has the authority to unleash this consolidation at all, saying it’s a matter for Congress," Hendel says.
"We haven’t made a final decision there yet,” Carr told Politico on Nov. 18. “I continue to be very open minded.”
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09/22/25 8:15 PM EDT
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09/23/25
09/23/25 mma
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MMA
Joe Rogan on Jimmy Kimmel's suspension: “I definitely don't think that the government should be involved, ever, in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue. That's fucking crazy.”
Rogan: “The problem is the companies, if they're being pressured by the government, so if that's real, and if people on the right are like, yeah, go get them. Oh my god. You're crazy. You're crazy for supporting this, because this will be used on you.”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published09/23/25
Video
Citation
From the September 23, 2025, edition of The Joe Rogan Experience, posted to YouTube
JOE ROGAN (HOST): Speaking of adapting, like this, this whole Jimmy Kimmel situation that is happening right now.
...
ROGAN: And so these, what, what you're dealing with even — first of all, I definitely don't think that the government should be involved, ever, in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue. That's fucking crazy.
ANDREW SANTINO (GUEST): It's crazy.
ROGAN: Now, if — the problem is the companies, if they're being pressured by the government, so if that's real, and if people on the right are like, yeah, go get them. Oh my god. You're crazy. You're crazy for supporting this, because this will be used on you.
You don't think that the fucking globalist lizard people who run the world are sitting here going, great. What do we got? Three years? We'll wait this out. We'll wait this out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let them say the government should be involved in, in censoring people's speech. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let 'em support that. Let these fucking dumbasses, because Jimmy Kimmel's a leftist, let these dumbasses think it's a good idea and we should celebrate that.
SANTINO: That's the most toxic shit I keep seeing online, when people are like, yeah, shut them down.
AN 9 25
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RWW
09/18/2025
by
- Joe DePaolo @ Mediaite: ‘Great News for America!’ Trump Absolutely Revels in Kimmel Suspension — Pushes NBC to Axe Jimmy Fallon Next
Despite a five-hour time difference in the UK, news of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension got to President Donald Trump before he fell asleep Wednesday night — and he wasted little time celebrating.
- Greg Sargent @ The New Republic: Trump’s Ouster of Jimmy Kimmel Is Much Worse Than You Think It Is
The startling decision by ABC to pull comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show under pressure from President Trump requires a real response from Democrats. It has to go well beyond expressions of outrage and defenses of the First Amendment—though those are critical—and spell out potential future consequences, political and possibly even legal, for those participating in this escalating lawlessness.
- Adam Serwer @ The Atlantic: The Constitution Protects Jimmy Kimmel’s Mistake
The Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, went on a conservative podcast and threatened Disney, which owns ABC, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” In 2023 Carr posted on X that “censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.” At the time that was a criticism of censorship; now it reads like a statement of intent.
- Adam Kinzinger: Brendan Carr’s FCC Power Play: How One Weak Man Threatens America’s Free Speech
After Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks on the Charlie Kirk shooting, Carr used FCC leverage to pressure ABC—showing how quickly constitutional rights can be trampled.
- Joe Walsh @ CBS News: Trump announces he's designating antifa as a "major terrorist organization"
President Trump announced Wednesday that he will designate antifa as a terrorist organization, and is recommending investigations into people who allegedly fund it.
- Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: Brutal MAGA Civil War Over Charlie Kirk’s Legacy
Podcasters, pastors, and plutocrats duking it out.
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an 9 25
President Donald Trump has been claiming that the ABC suspended late night host Jimmy Kimmel because of poor ratings, but he shared a different thought on Thursday about what the future of network television might entail.
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The Independent added that President Trump “told reporters on Air Force One as he jets back from his State visit to the U.K. that because he won the election and networks give him ‘wholly bad publicity,’ that ‘I would think maybe their license should be taken away.'”
“It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy,” the president said, referring to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Legal expert reveals Trump admin's biggest mistake in pressuring ABC to punish Kimmel - Alternet.org
'Righteous free speech' podcasters who voted for Trump rage against Kimmel suspension - Alternet.org
'Corrupt abuse of power': Dems rip FCC chair over Kimmel suspension - Alternet.org
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NEWSWEEK 9 25
ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show off the air after comments the comedian made about the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, and following pressure from the network's affiliates as well as the nation's TV regulator.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely," a spokesperson for the Disney-owned broadcaster said in a statement shared with various news outlets on Wednesday.
The move has drawn praise from allies and supporters of President Donald Trump, but sparked condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and free expression advocates.
The context of Kimmel's cancellation has led to allegations that business interests—particularly those concerning a delicate merger approval process involving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and ABC affiliate Nexstar—may have played a role.
Taken together, some have interpreted this as a form of indirect censorship of the political Left by the Trump administration. Similar concerns were raised following the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
"First Colbert, now Kimmel. Last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump's approval," said Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. "Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy."
Newsweek has contacted ABC, Nexstar and the FCC via email for comment.
Why It Matters
In the wake of Kirk's killing, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions critics believe undermine longstanding commitments to free speech in the U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned foreign nationals celebrating his death online to "prepare to be deported," Vice President JD Vance has encouraged people to report those who do so to their employers, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has come under fire for urging a crackdown on "hate speech"—a move many believe clashes with First Amendment protections.
Read moreJimmy Kimmel
Russian State TV Floats Theory Trump Planned Charlie Kirk's Killing
The administration of President Joe Biden faced similar criticism and accusations of censorship over the pressure it placed on social media companies to remove accounts and posts relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election that were considered misinformation. In June 2024, the Supreme Court rejected cases claiming that these amounted to an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
Why Was Jimmy Kimmel Taken Off the Air?
During his Monday night monologue, Kimmel made remarks about Kirk's death and its aftermath, suggesting that Trump supporters were attempting to capitalize on the murder and distance themselves from the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson.
"We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it," Kimmel said.
Kimmel also mocked President Trump's seemingly uninvolved response to a reporter's question on Kirk's death.
In an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally and appointee, called Kimmel's comments "some of the sickest conduct possible," and said that there could be "a path forward for suspension over this."
"This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney," he added. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
Carr also urged other media companies and local broadcasters to "push back" and stop airing the show.
:{:{FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at the Rayburn House Office Building on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.}:
Following Carr's interview, Nexstar Media Group, the owner of several ABC affiliate stations, announced that it would stop airing the show "for the foreseeable future" over Kimmel's remarks.
"Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets," the statement read.
This sequence of events has raised questions about the extent to which this decision was guided by financial motivations rather than genuine outrage over Kimmel's comments.
Nexstar, one of the biggest station owners in the U.S, is currently attempting to complete a merger with fellow TV giant Tegna. The nature of the merger—valued at $6.2 billion—requires the approval of the FCC, and for it to loosen longstanding ownership regulations. These include federal laws barring a single entity from owning TV stations that together reach over 39 percent of American households, and guidelines on the total number of stations that can be owned in a single market.
Sinclair, ABC's largest affiliate group, similarly objected to Kimmel's remarks, and said it would be pulling the late-night show from its stations "indefinitely." Sinclair praised FCC Chairman Carr's comments, and asked Kimmel to issue an apology to Kirk's family, and to make a "meaningful personal donation" to both them and Turning Point USA, the conservative outreach group founded by Kirk.
"Regardless of ABC's plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends not to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to our air until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform," Sinclair said.
According to CNN, Sinclair—like Nexstar—has matters awaiting approval from the Trump administration.
Newsweekhas contacted Sinclair via email for comment.
After ABC followed suit, Johnson boasted that it was his podcast with Carr that led to Kimmel's show being taken off the air.
"It's called soft power. The Left uses it all the time," he wrote on X. "Thanks to President Trump, the Right has learned how to wield power as well."
FCC Chairman Carr, meanwhile, responded to CNN's request for a reaction with a GIF taken from The Office,in which the characters Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute are pumping their hands in the air in celebration.
What People Are Saying
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening, said that broadcast licenses carry "a unique obligation to operate in the public interest."
Commenting on the decisions by Nexstar and Sinclair to pull the show, Carr added: "I'm very glad to see that American broadcasters are standing up to serve the interests of our community."
President Donald Trump reacted to the news on Truth Social, writing:"Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that's possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT."
Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar's broadcasting division, said: "Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue."
Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner at the FCC, posted to X: "An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control. This Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression."
The Writers Guild of America (WGA), a Hollywood labor union, said in a statement:"Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world. The WGA stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers."
California Governor Gavin Newsom posted to X: "Corrupt, despicable, & spineless behavior. A coordinated effort to control the media is happening before our eyes & it needs to be called out."
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren posted to X:"First Colbert, now Kimmel. Last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump's approval. Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy. It sure looks like giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism."
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) reacted: "The government pressured ABC—and ABC caved. The timing of ABC's decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman's pledge to the network to "do this the easy way or the hard way," tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it."
What Happens Next?
Sinclair said that its ABC stations will air a tribute to this Friday, during Jimmy Kimmel Live's usual time slot.
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an 5 25
'A clear violation of the Constitution': NPR sues Trump
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MMA
Trump calls for FCC retribution against “FAKE NEWS” ABC and NBC — while touting the “great man” who “just bought CBS”
How to get off Trump’s media shit list
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 08/25/25
President Donald Trump sent a clear message over the weekend that media companies can forestall his vicious denunciations and threats of federal retribution. All their owners have to do is bend the knee and grant his administration sufficient reassurance that their news outlets won’t prove troublesome.
Trump urged the Federal Communications Commission to punish two of the “Big Three” national broadcast networks for their political content, a straightforward assault on the First Amendment, in a pair of Sunday night posts.
The president condemned ABC and NBC as “FAKE NEWS” and an “actual threat to our Democracy” because they purportedly run too many “BAD STORIES” about him and provide “unfair coverage of Republicans.” He added that in response, these outlets should either “HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC” or be forced to pay “Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES.”
CBS, the third of the “Big Three,” escaped Trump’s malice.
As recently as April, Trump denounced CBS as “out of control, at levels never seen before,” and called upon FCC chair Brendan Carr to “impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior.” Carr at the time was corruptly delaying the purchase of CBS parent company Paramount by Skydance Media, owned by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Silicon Valley mogul and close Trump ally Larry Ellison, in response to Trump’s frivolous lawsuit over CBS News’ handling of a 60 Minutes interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in October 2024.
But since then:
- Trump got his payoff. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle the lawsuit and resolve “a threatened defamation action concerning a separate 60 Minutes report,” the company announced on July 1. The president subsequently claimed there is a side deal in which Paramount will air $16-19 million in free public service announcements.
- CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’sThe Late Show.Colbert, an outspoken Trump critic, announced on July 17 that CBS was ending his program. While CBS insiders argued that “the move was financially driven, not politically motivated,” the announcement came the same week Ellison met Carr and other FCC officials in hopes of securing the merger. Trump, for his part, responded the following morning, “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired.”
- Reports circulated over a possible Bari Weiss role with CBS. The Status newsletter’s Oliver Darcy reported in late June that Ellison was seeking to recruit Weiss, the conservative journalist whose outlet The Free Press provides a sort of permission structure for centrists to support Trump over Democrats, “to work in some capacity” at CBS. In mid-July, several outlets reported that Ellison and Weiss were discussing a possible deal in which Skydance would buy The Free Press.
- The FCC approved Skydance purchase of Paramount late last month, citing Skydance’s “commitment to make significant changes” at CBS News.The FCC announced on July 24 that it had approved the acquisition. Carr cited in an accompanying statement “Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,” its provision of “written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum,” and its pledge to “root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.”
- Massive layoffs are looming over CBS. It would be difficult to convince or compel CBS News’ current slate of journalists to lay off the president — but it’s easy to fire them. After Variety reported last week that CBS News staffers “are worried about the potential for a new round of layoffs,” the New York Post reported Friday that a “bloodbath” of layoffs at Paramount Skydance is expected in early November.
The moves were more than enough to get CBS off Trump’s media shit list. In fact, the president recently lavished praise on its new owner, Paramount Skydance chief executive David Ellison.
“CBS was just sold to a great person that I know very well,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “A great man. He actually just bought CBS. And I think he‘s going to do the right thing with it.”
Trump’s authoritarian assault on the free press offers media moguls both sticks and carrots — and too many of them have decided they would rather submit to his will than fight. Just seven months into his administration, he’s already forced one of the major broadcast networks to yield. Two to go.
//
04/28/25 1:22 PM EDT
07/23/25 11:57 AM EDT
02/04/25
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https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/law-strikes-back-lawyers-doing-trump-s-bidding-targeted-where-integrity-still-matters-244355141795
maddow disbar teter legal accty ctr michael teter ethics complaint slc?
even big law ~ trump back off pro bono for ppl
new small purpose firm oppose imp prez, 2 fired doj
freedom of press assoc sued carr fcc
jeff clark
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the hill
7 25
no lnx
Freedom of the Press Foundation has filed an ethics complaint against Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, arguing the close of ally of President Trump has “engaged in egregious misconduct,” and calling for him to be disbarred.
In the organization’s complaint, filed with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals’ Office of Disciplinary Counsel on Monday, cites Carr’s public statements and actions in the weeks leading up to the agency’s recent approval of the Paramount, Skydance merger.
“Everyone from U.S. senators to CBS employees to a dissenting FCC commissioner has said the settlement appears to have been a bribe to grease the wheels for Carr’s FCC to approve the merger,” the complaint reads. “Even putting Paramount aside, Carr has pursued numerous other frivolous and unconstitutional legal proceedings and threatened more of them in furtherance in his efforts to intimidate broadcast licensees to censor themselves and fall in line with Trump’s agenda.”
The organization’s complaint was first reported in journalist Oliver Darcy’s media newsletter Status.
Carr had in the weeks leading up to the merger publicly blasted CBS News over its coverage of the Trump administration and indicated he believed the “60 Minutes’ interview that sparked a lawsuit against the network from President Trump could hold up FCC approval of the $8 billion deal.
Paramount, CBS’s parent company, earlier this month agreed to pay Trump’s foundation $16 million and its new parent company made several concessions as part of its merger agreement with Skydance.
Carr praised those promises, including the appointing of an ombudsman to monitor CBS coverage for objectivity, in announcing the agency had approved the deal last week, saying “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change.”
“Carr’s actions brazenly violate legal and ethical standards that govern the practice of lawand public officials, undermining the First Amendment, the FCC’s credibility and the laws
he is trusted to administer,” the complaint said. “His abuse of his office to force an unwarranted settlement of a private lawsuit, is shameful and warrants disbarment.”
A representative for the FCC did not respond to a request for comment.
Tags Brendan Carr Donald Trump
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NO LNX
This new capitulation to Trump is grotesque — and the most dangerous yet
Thom Hartmann July 31, 2025
The media’s job in a democratic society is to speak truth to power, not to suck up to it. But last week, CBS and its parent company Paramount waved the white flag, handing Donald Trump a $16 million bribe and agreeing to censor their own newsroom to curry favor with a twice-impeached, multiply-indicted rapist authoritarian who lost the popular vote twice.
That is not journalism. That’s capitulation. And it’s devastating to democracies.
The Paramount merger with Skydance should never have been a political issue. In normal times, regulatory agencies like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) operate independently, applying laws without fear or favor. But these are not normal times.
Trump’s FCC — under the control of far-right ideologue Brendan Carr, who helped draft the fascism-friendly blueprint known as Project 2025 — made it clear they’d block the deal unless CBS “cleaned house.”
Carr even bragged on CNBC that the merger only went through because Skydance promised to remove “bias” from CBS News. By “bias,” of course, he means “truth.”
Trump and Carr appear to be demanding that CBS stop telling the truth about the GOP’s fascist drift, stop investigating corruption, and stop airing facts that make Trump and the MAGA movement look bad. And CBS didn’t just roll over: they cut a personal check to Trump for $16 million, reportedly threw in an equal amount in free advertising, canceled Stephen Colbert’s show to eliminate critical comedy, and agreed to install a literal “monitor” in their newsroom to hunt down and eliminate so-called “leftwing bias.”
This is not just grotesque. It’s dangerous.
Installing government-friendly “monitors” in newsrooms to silence dissent is one of the first things authoritarians do when they take power. It happened in Hungary under Viktor Orbán. It happened in Russia under Vladimir Putin. In Germany in the early 1930s, Adolf Hitler handed control of the media to Joseph Goebbels and banned reporting that contradicted Nazi talking points.
What Trump and Carr are doing is textbook fascism: co-opting the press, criminalizing dissent, and demanding personal loyalty above all else across both government and the media.
The problem, of course, is that reality has a well-known leftwing bias. That’s because reality, unlike rightwing ideology, is rooted in facts. For example:
Trickle-down economics has never helped the working class — it’s a scam to transfer wealth to the rich.
Immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes — they’re less likely.
Late-term abortions are rare and almost always involve severe fetal abnormalities or risks to the mother — women don’t “love getting abortions” or do so with little thought.
Unions raise wages and reduce inequality — they don’t “steal from workers.”
Climate change is real and accelerating, and fossil fuel companies and Republicans have known it — and spent billions to cover it up — for decades.
Renewable energy is cheaper than coal, gas, or oil in most of the world.
People on public assistance are usually not “lazy” but are either disabled, working or actively seeking work, or living in areas where there is no work.
Raising the minimum wage doesn’t increase unemployment — it boosts the economym, which increases employment.
Universal healthcare works in every other developed nation — it’s not “impossible” to implement here in America.
The U.S. was not founded as a Christian nation, but as a secular republic.
Yet when these facts and others become “too political” for CBS to air — when truth is treated as liberal bias — we’re in real trouble. If CBS can’t push back on obvious lies because it’s afraid of offending Trump’s FCC, how long before every newsroom falls in line?
This is exactly how freedom of the press — and then freedom for everybody — dies: not with a bang, but with a checkbook and a veiled threat. When media companies start self-censoring to avoid regulatory retribution, they become lapdogs, not watchdogs.
And Trump isn’t even trying to hide this. He’s bragging about it.
Last week, the White House even released a full-on tantrum of a statement attacking South Park for mocking Trump. The show dared to suggest that combining the powers of the presidency with lawsuits and bribes might be a bad thing for democracy. In response, Trump’s staff accused the show of being “irrelevant” and “desperate for attention.”
Can you name any other president in American history who issued a press release attacking a cartoon?
But Trump’s not just punching down with his words: he’s using the full weight of the federal government to go after anyone who defies him. He’s already targeted universities, law firms, prosecutors, and journalists with bogus DOJ investigations and regulatory harassment. Now he’s turned the FCC into his personal censorship bureau.
The bribes paid by CBS and ABC weren’t one-offs, they were the first installment in a classic protection racket.
That’s not America. That’s a mob state being run by a man who behaves like a mob boss.
So what do we do? First, we must stop pretending this is normal. It’s not. CBS didn’t make a “business decision,” they submitted to a political shakedown. And the rest of the media should not let them get away with it.
Second, we must speak out, loudly and relentlessly. Let CBS know that rolling over for a wannabe strongman is unacceptable. Tell your local stations you want truth, not Trump-approved propaganda. Support independent journalism and media outlets willing to tell the truth even when it’s unpopular. Subscribe. Donate. Amplify their work.
And finally, we need to get serious about defending our democracy. That means voting like our freedoms depend on it, because they do. It means rejecting candidates who would silence the press and stack the courts and install “monitors” in our newsrooms. It means recognizing authoritarianism when it’s right in front of us and calling it what it is. It means getting inside your local Democratic Party and fighting for real progressive change and the survival of our republic.
Trump has shown us, again and again, that he will use every lever of power to silence his critics and punish his enemies. Now he has the FCC and a major news network doing his bidding. If we stay silent now, we may not get another chance.
Democracy dies when people stop caring. Let’s prove that we still do.
NOW READ: 'You guys made this happen': Dems find a way to stick it to a furious GOP
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WIRED
Makena Kelly
:{:{Politics Nov 20, 2024}:
Trump’s FCC Pick Wants to Be the Speech Police. That’s Not His Job
Brendan Carr wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the Federal Communications Commission. Now Donald Trump has tapped him to run the agency.}:
:{:{Brendan Carr at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.}:
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wants to refashion the broadband regulator into the nation’s speech police on social platforms.
As FCC chair, Carr would set the agency’s agenda on issues like broadband deployment, net neutrality, and telecom privacy. But since Carr was nominated as a commissioner in 2017 by Trump, he’s spent much of his time focusing on contentious internet speech rules that the agency has historically never played a role in. Without a massive regulatory overhaul from Congress or the courts, passing his agenda would be an uphill battle.
In a Sunday statement appointing Carr, Trump called him “a warrior for Free Speech” who will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators.” Thanking Trump, Carr wrote on X, “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”
Carr authored the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC, writing that the agency needed to prioritize issues like “reining in Big tech” and “promoting national security.” Specifically on his to-do list, Carr says that the FCC should issue an order that reinterprets Section 230 to eliminate the “expansive” liability immunities it provides to social platforms. Section 230 is part of the Communications Decency Act passed in 1996, which protects internet companies from being sued over content that appears on their platforms and has given companies the ability to decide what content can or cannot be posted.
But there is no precedent for the FCC governing online speech, and experts tell WIRED that the agency has no authority to act on Trump and Carr’s speech prescriptions.
“This is a radical view that they can somehow do something about Section 230 at the FCC,” says Chris Lewis, president and CEO at Public Knowledge, a progressive tech advocacy group.
In his Project 2025 write-up, Carr specifically argues that companies should allow users to personalize their own content filters and that platforms should remove only illegal user-generated content. Carr has also forged a relationship with X owner Elon Musk, who has also suggested that platforms like his own should only take down unlawful content like child abuse imagery. (Carr appeared with Musk and Trump at a Tuesday SpaceX launch.)
“What he can do and wants to do is use his bully pulpit to bully companies that moderate content in a way he doesn’t like,” says Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group. “And if he continues to do that, he's very likely to run smack into the First Amendment, which, contrary to misconception, is the real thing that protects online speech.” Section 230 protects social media companies from being sued over the content users post on their platforms, while the First Amendment explicitly bars the government from interfering in someone’s ability to exercise free speech. Over the summer, the Supreme Court ruled that a company’s moderation decisions are protected under the First Amendment.
As for Section 230, the Supreme Court may have just made it more difficult for administrative agencies like the FCC to reinterpret it to their liking. Over the summer, the court overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), a decision that had allowed for government agencies to independently interpret their authorities. With the Chevron deference made moot, it could be an uphill battle for the FCC to make its own interpretations of the law.
“Agencies are basically losing the ability to interpret how they can enforce when language is vague in the statute,” says Lewis. “Section 230’s language is actually very short and very straightforward and has no FCC action attached to it.” If Carr decided to issue a rule modifying Section 230, it would likely be met with legal challenges. Still, Republicans currently control all three branches of government and could either rule in the administration’s favor or pass new legislation putting the FCC as the top cop on the beat.
Trump has tried to deputize the FCC into policing online speech before. In 2020, Trump signed an executive order instructing the FCC to begin a rule-making process to reinterpret when Section 230 would apply to social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The Center for Democracy and Technology, which receives funding from big tech companies, challenged the order as unconstitutional, saying that it unfairly punished X, then known as Twitter, “to chill the constitutionally protected speech of all online platforms and individuals.”
Months later, FCC general counsel Tom Johnson published a blog post arguing that the agency has the authority to reinterpret the foundational internet law. A few days after that, then FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced that the agency would move forward on a rule-making process, but no rule was ordered before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, giving Democrats control over agency decisions.
“It was ignored and rejected, basically,” says Lewis.
Democratic FCC members called the Section 230 directive “politically motivated and legally unsound.” At the time, current FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said, “The FCC has no business being the president’s speech police.”
Concerns over Carr’s leadership at the commission extend beyond regulating social media moderation. In Carr’s Project 2025 chapter, he said that the agency should not only target internet companies over censorship concerns, but TV and radio broadcasters as well. Trump has regularly threatened or sued media outlets over negative coverage. Just this week, the former president sued The New York Times and Penguin Random House for alleged bias.
In recent letters and statements, Carr appears eager to get to work. When Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on Saturday Night Live earlier this month, Carr floated the idea of revoking NBC’s broadcasting license, something that is in the FCC’s control.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” Carr wrote on X at the time. Carr also recently suggested that the FCC could go after 60 Minutes over a complaint that the program violated the agency’s news distortion rule by editing an interview with Kamala Harris. CBS News maintains that the clip was an honest depiction of Harris’ answer. Carr said this week that the FCC would examine the complaint as it reviews a proposed merger between Skydance and Paramount global, CBS’s parent company.
Carr has also taken Musk’s side in regulatory issues the Starlink maker has before the FCC. In a dissenting statement on the FCC’s decision to bar Starlink from broadband subsidies, Carr equated the agency’s actions to “regulatory harassment.” With a Republican majority and Carr as FCC chair, he would have more control over which internet companies receive federal funding.
It remains unclear exactly how Carr would pursue changes to Section 230 and if they would survive legal scrutiny. But if the agency cannot go after online speech, Carr’s chairmanship could be defined more by what it decided not to do in place of what it couldn’t.
“He wants to abdicate his responsibility running an agency that's supposed to protect the public from exploitation, greed, and abuse of big telecom companies by pointing his finger and waving over there at this other set of companies that he doesn't actually have any meaningful authority to regulate,” says Greer.
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mma 1 25
January 11, 2025, edition of MSNBC's Ayman
AYMAN MOHYELDIN (HOST): So that was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arguing that when the U.S. government targets or attacks tech companies, it sets a dangerous precedent. And it seems kind of rich coming from Mark Zuckerberg because you know it was Zuck that Donald Trump literally threatened to throw in prison for the rest of his life if he did anything illegal to influence the presidential election. And this week, Trump even gloated that Zuckerberg rolled back his fact-checking program because he scared him into it. And with that capitulation, Zuck seems to have completed his full transformation from tech bro to MAGA world. The transformation includes bulking up, abandoning his hoodie for an oversized black tee, and of course a little bling around his neck. And to be honest, the signs have been there for a while. This was not an overnight transformation.
...
Angelo, your take on this full transformation by Zuckerberg? I mean, it's — We can joke around a little bit, but it carries some serious and dangerous weight for a lot in this country.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Yeah, it really does, for a lot of reasons. I mean, this isn't surprising. I mean, he's done this before. Let's not forget that back in 2016, you know, after Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham did this meeting with him in May of 2016, he radically overhauled Facebook's policies around the trending topics section and right-wing misinformation and content exploded. There's been this idea, at least that sort of metastasized, that somehow Facebook has been suppressing or censoring conservative content. It's just the right wing working the refs. I mean, we did a big study that looked at 29 million posts. Right-wing content had 42% of the engagements, even though it only accounted for 19% of the content. I mean, that's not what suppression and censorship looks like.
But part of what we're seeing is the culmination of a strategy of working the refs and doing two things. You threaten them and bully them. In this case, you know, Zuckerberg not only got threatened to be jailed, but then in November, right after Trump won the election, the guy that's going to be the new FCC chair sent a letter saying, “Hey, we're going to come after your Section 230 immunity protections unless you stop censoring.” So one was to avoid consequences, and then the second part, which is even scarier — and this is going to be the new norm — is that you could also get something out of it.
And that's what Zuckerberg saw, is that if you don't just say nice things to Trump, but you actually start to take what you have, which is his ecosystem, and use it to empower MAGA and the megaphone that we were just talking about in the first segment, you can get something out of it. And what he wants is less accountability from other countries that are actually cracking down on the types of misinformation, disinformation, extremism, sort of surveillance, you know, advertising that the platform is doing, and they're trying to rein it in. And what he wants is protection.
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06/23/2025
by
- Alex Galbraith @ Salon: "Back then we had dumb presidents": Vance explains key difference in current Middle East war
Vice President J.D. Vance served in the Iraq War a full six years before troops were withdrawn. Because of that, you might expect some hesitancy from the veep as President Donald Trump waltzes his way into another Middle Eastern war. Instead, the second-in-command of the Trump admin can confidently say that this time will be different, because past presidents were "dumb."
- Janna Brancolini @ The Daily Beast: Giuliani Demands Treason Charges for Dems Threatening to Impeach Trump Over Iran
Disgraced former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani railed against Democrats calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment over his unilateral strikes against Iran.
- Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Trump Breaking Campaign Promises: ‘We’re Entering a Nuclear War, World War III’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) joined Steve Bannon’s WarRoom on Monday and fumed at President Donald Trump for breaking his campaign promise not to engage in wars in the Middle East.
- Angry White Men: Dave Reilly: Boise Is ‘Clean’ And ‘There Aren’t Any Black People’
On Friday, white nationalists Dave Reilly and Rebecca Crockett hosted their podcast, The Backlash, from Boise’s Heterosexual Awesomeness Festival — a sparsely-attended anti-LGBTQ event hosted by the Old State Saloon. While speaking with Old State Saloon owner Mark Fitzpatrick, who appeared on the show before, Reilly praised Boise for not having “any Black people.”
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: In defiance of courts, Texas to put Ten Commandments in public schools
The Supreme Court has already ruled against Ten Commandments in classrooms. Republicans in several states are approving new laws anyway.
- Media Matters: Media Matters files suit in federal court to block retaliatory FTC investigation and protect its First Amendment rights
Investigation into Media Matters is the latest example of Trump administration abusing power to target perceived political opponents.
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DUCK 6 25
AI Brendan Carr, the FCC Chair, is working to weaken Section 230, which currently protects tech companies from legal liability for user-generated content. His proposed changes could significantly impact how social media platforms operate and their legal responsibilities.
New York Post
Slate Magazine
New York Post
https://nypost.com › 2025 › 02 › 22 › business › fcc-chair-brendan-carr-taking-first-steps-in-eroding-key-legal-protection-enjoyed-by-big-tech
FCC Chair Brendan Carr taking first steps in eroding key legal ...
Feb 22, 2025The FCC — with a new GOP majority led by Carr — is the top regulator of media, new and old. It has the legal authority to interpret Section 230, and change the prior guidance that has given ...
Brendan Carr: Free Speech Advocate to Lead FCC | Politics
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Who's Brendan Carr, the next FCC chairman - TelecomLead
telecomlead.com
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Argues Section 230 Reform Is Necessary
thefederalist.com
Brendan Carr Thinks FCC Has Section 230 Authority, But Not Others at ...
Brendan Carr Thinks FCC Has Section 230 Authority, But Not Others at ...
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Nexstar CEO Calls Brendan Carr an 'Outstanding Choice' as FCC Chairman
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New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announces staff appointments
New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announces staff appointments
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Reason.com
https://reason.com › 2025 › 02 › 05 › how-the-fccs-warrior-for-free-speech-became-our-censor-in-chief
How the FCC's 'warrior for free speech' became our censor in chief
Feb 5, 2025Specifically, Carr said the FCC should "clarify" the interpretation of the statute to "appropriately limit the number of cases in which a platform can censor with the benefit of Section 230's ...
Benton Foundation
https://www.benton.org › blog › project-2025-brendan-carrs-agenda-fcc
Project 2025: Brendan Carr's Agenda for the FCC
Jul 19, 2024The FCC should remind courts how the various portions of Section 230 operate. The FCC can clarify that Section 230(c)(1) does not apply broadly to every decision that a platform makes. ... FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has nearly 20 years of private-sector and public-sector experience in communications and tech policy.
Newsmax
https://www.newsmax.com › politics › fcc-meta-amazon › 2025 › 02 › 26 › id › 1200599
FCC's Carr Prepares to Erode Big Tech Legal Protection
Feb 26, 2025Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is preparing to weaken the legal protection known as Section 230 that shields Big Tech companies from liability, according to a report from the New York Post.. Post columnist Charles Gasparino reported that Carr's plan to erode Section 230 could potentially cost some of the world's most profitable companies billions in market value.
Broadband Breakfast
https://broadbandbreakfast.com › carr-links-section-230-immunity-to-acting-in-good-faith
Carr Links Section 230 Immunity to Acting in Good Faith
Nov 24, 2024WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2024 - Incoming Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr continues to believe the agency has a role in defining the limits of a law that provides broad immunity to online publishers and social media platforms.. Carr, in an interview Friday, said immunity found in Section 230 of the Communications Act applied to the extent covered entities acted in good faith.
WIRED
https://www.wired.com › story › brendan-carr-fcc-trump-speech-social-media-moderation
Trump FCC Pick Brendan Carr Wants to Be the Speech Police. That's Not ...
Nov 20, 2024Brendan Carr wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the Federal Communications Commission. ... "This is a radical view that they can somehow do something about Section 230 at the FCC," says Chris ...
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https://progresschamber.org › trumps-fcc-pick-crusaded-against-content-moderation-in-project-2025
Trump's FCC Pick Crusaded Against Content Moderation in Project 2025
Nov 17, 2024Today, President-Elect Donald Trump appointed Brendan Carr as the next Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Carr has stated his intention to weaken Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the 28-year-old statute that enables online speech. Carr detailed his plan to 'reinterpret' Section 230 in Project 2025, the ...
FCC
https://docs.fcc.gov › public › attachments › DOC-365764A1.pdf
Fcc Commissioner Carr Welcomes Section 230 Petition
and Information Administration (NTIA) filed a petition for rulemaking with the FCC. The petition asks the FCC to adopt rules clarifying Section 230. In an op-ed published earlier today in Newsweek, Commissioner Carr laid out a path forward on Big Tech. His plan focuses on promoting change along three main lines—transparency, accountability, and
The Register
https://www.theregister.com › 2024 › 11 › 19 › brendan_carr_fcc
We already know Brendan Carr's plans for the FCC
Nov 19, 2024Carr wants to revisit Section 230 - the legislative provision that guarantees platforms immunity from litigation over most illegal content posted to their platforms. "The FCC should work with Congress to ensure that antidiscrimination provisions are applied to Big Tech - including 'back-end' companies that provide hosting services and DDoS ...
National Law Review
https://natlawreview.com › article › telecom-alert-new-fcc-chair-nominated-lighting-inspection-waiver-separation-rules
FCC Updates: Brendan Carr Nominated as Chairman & Key Regulatory
Nov 18, 2024Brendan Carr is nominated as the next FCC Chairman, signaling potential shifts in net neutrality and Section 230 policies. Latest on undersea cable, robocall, and ju
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mma
Fox attacks Scott Pelley for accurately describing Trump’s war on the press
Written by Matt Gertz
Research contributions from Alicia Sadowski
Published 05/29/25
Fox News and Fox Business hosts are lashing out at CBS News’ Scott Pelley for criticizing President Donald Trump’s attacks on free speech and civil society, even as his network’s parent company reportedly prepares to capitulate to the president’s assault.
“Journalism is under attack,” the 60 Minutes correspondent said in a May 19 commencement speech at Wake Forest University that went viral over the weekend. “Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack.”
While Pelley did not mention the president or the White House by name, no one missed the implication — including Fox’s stable of pro-Trump zealots.
- ### Fox on Pelley: “Trump-hating former anchorman” who is “full of rage” should be arrested
The mainstream press’s purported Democratic partisanship and untrustworthiness is one of the pillars of Fox’s programming. On Tuesday and Wednesday, it was Pelley’s turn as the networks’ media hate object of choice.
Sean Hannity, the Trump political operative who also hosts a prime-time Fox News show, denounced Pelley’s address as “full of rage and anti-Trump rhetoric,” adding that the 60 Minutes reporter is not a journalist but a “biased liberal radical talk show host” and “a phony liar.”
Former Trump economic adviser turned Fox Business host Larry Kudlow’s take was that Pelley had “the worst bout of Trump derangement syndrome,” while Harris Faulkner claimed he was “fighting for relevance.”
On The Five, Greg Gutfeld attempted to defuse Pelley's comments about authoritarian attacks on the press by pointing out that the CBS newsman hadn’t been arrested after his speech — only for his co-host, former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, to respond that “he should have been.”
And Laura Ingraham not only panned Pelley as a “Trump-hating former anchorman” — she used the opportunity to tout the Trump administration’s effort to punish his network.
“There's nothing worse than someone who pretends to be persecuted while ignoring real persecution, or pretends to be the keeper of the truths when associated with a network that did everything it could to protect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, even editing an interview with the VP to make her look smarter,” Ingraham said.
“So, it was bad timing for Scott's commencement sanctimony about truth and justice when 60 Minutes’ alleged corruption is being now cited as a potential sticking point in Paramount's $8 billion sale to Skydance Media,” she added. “Whoops. But the press has no one to blame but themselves.”
- ### Pelley is right — but his corporate bosses want to fold to Trump’s attacks
Pelley is correct about the Trump administration’s assault on the free press.
The president has long sought to discredit critical journalism. He decries reporting he doesn’t like as “fake news” and tries to chill it through a combination of personal lawsuits, threats of criminal investigations, and the weaponization of federal agencies against news outlets and their owners.
Pelley’s show and network, as Ingraham indicated, are among the biggest targets of this strategy. Trump and his allies claimed during the 2024 election that by airing two different portions of Harris’ response to an interview question — one on 60 Minutes and another in a preview of the interview shown on Face the Nation — CBS News had committed, in the president’s words, “the biggest scandal in broadcast history.” Trump called for CBS to lose its broadcast license and subsequently filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the network and its parent company, Paramount Global.
The only thing more insane than a legal attack over the editing of interview clips is Fox’s willingness to carry water for the argument. First Amendment attorneys told CNN that Trump’s suit was “ridiculous junk” and “a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media.” And in January, then-Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel tossed a similar complaint filed by a right-wing group, arguing that it sought “to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment” and turn the agency into “the president’s speech police.”
But while Rosenworcel warned against turning the FCC into “the president’s speech police,” her Trump-appointed replacement, Brendan Carr, apparently sees that as his mission. He said before taking the post that the complaint was “likely to arise” in the agency’s review of Paramount Global’s planned merger with Skydance Media, swiftly revived the probe afterward, and has slow-walked the merger ever since.
When the Trump administration tried a similar tactic in his first term, blocking Time Warner’s purchase by AT&T while the president railed against Time Warner subsidiary CNN, AT&T stood firm, fought it out in court, and won. Several law firms who fought back when Trump targeted them for retribution in his second term have also found success.
But Paramount and its chair, Shari Redstone, who reportedly “stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount,” are apparently setting a different, more craven path. Reports have indicated for months that Paramount executives are eager to settle Trump’s lawsuit in hopes that his administration will then approve their deal. In April, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens stepped down in light of what Pelley suggested was increasing, inappropriate Paramount scrutiny of CBS News reporting. CBS News President Wendy McMahon was forced out in May, saying, “It’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”
Paramount’s capitulation appears to be coming to a head. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the company has offered Trump’s lawyers a $15 million settlement, but “Trump’s team wants more than $25 million and is also seeking an apology from CBS News.” The apology, the Journal reported, had been a sticking point for McMahon. Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team reportedly “threatened another lawsuit against CBS related to alleged bias of its news coverage,” while Trump himself responded to a different 60 Minutes broadcast by calling for the network to lose its license and directed Carr to “impose the maximum fines and punishment.”
If Paramount folds in the face of Trump’s extortion, Redstone may get her big merger payday. But the result will only encourage the president to make more attacks on CBS News and other news outlets. His aim is to quell negative reporting by any means necessary, and his appetite for humiliating and delegitimizing the press cannot be sated without news outlets becoming as servile as his Fox propagandists.
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ars tech
federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr accused Comcast of "news distortion" because its subsidiary NBC isn't parroting the Trump administration narrative on the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
"Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn't cut it," Carr wrote in a post on X yesterday.
Carr's use of the phrase "news distortion" is significant because he has been invoking the FCC's rarely enforced news distortion policy to pressure licensed broadcasters that he perceives as being biased against President Trump. For a detailed look at Carr's fight against media, read our feature: "The speech police: Chairman Brendan Carr and the FCC's news distortion policy."
Carr, who recently wore a pin depicting Trump's head on his lapel, provided no substantive argument that NBC is guilty of news distortion. Historically, the FCC has enforced the policy in only the most extreme cases where there is evidence of misconduct, such as a bribe, or instructions from management to distort the news. As a 1985 ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said, the FCC policy makes "a crucial distinction between deliberate distortion and mere inaccuracy or difference of opinion."
In his post yesterday, Carr alleged that "Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding US citizen, just a regular 'Maryland man.'" Carr wrote that "Abrego Garcia came to America illegally from El Salvador, was validated as a member of the violent MS-13 gang—a transnational criminal organization—and was denied bond by an immigration court for failure to show he would not pose a danger to others."
"Why does Comcast ignore these facts of obvious public interest?" Carr asked.
SCOTUS ruled US must facilitate man’s release
Abrego Garcia's lawyer said in a lawsuit that he has no affiliation with MS-13. During a 2019 immigration court proceeding, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "offered a Gang Field Interview Sheet ('GFIS') generated by PGPD [Prince George County Police Department]," the lawsuit said. "The GFIS explained that the only reason to believe Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was a gang member was that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie; and that a confidential informant advised that he was an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique."
The MS-13 Westerns clique is said to operate in New York, "a state that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia has never lived in," the lawsuit said. The Gang Field Interview Sheet was reportedly filled out by an officer who was later suspended and indicted for providing confidential information to a sex worker.
The Supreme Court last week upheld a key portion of a District Court order on the deportation, saying that the lower court's "order properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador."
Carr made his statement on X yesterday while sharing a post by White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who said it's "SHAMEFUL that CNN and MSNBC refuses to take Angel Mom Patty Morin as she recounts the terrible tragedy of how an illegal killed her sweet daughter, Rachel."
Victor Martinez-Hernandez was convicted of killing Rachel Morin earlier this week. The White House has attempted to link this murder to Abrego Garcia's deportation, but they are entirely separate cases.
Carr’s fight against media
Carr's post yesterday, combined with his recent actions to enforce the news distortion policy, suggest that he is likely to open a proceeding if a formal complaint is lodged against any NBC stations. Carr showed he is willing to investigate news distortion complaints into ordinary editorial decisions when he revived complaints against CBS and ABC that were thrown out under the previous administration.
Carr has focused in particular on the CBS complaint, which concerns the editing of a CBS *60 Minutes* interview with Kamala Harris. The conservative Center for American Rights alleged that CBS distorted the news by airing "two completely different answers" to the same question.
CBS published unedited video and a transcript that shows it simply aired two different sentences from the same response in different segments, but Carr has kept the proceeding open and seems to be using it as a bargaining chip in the FCC review of CBS-owner Paramount's transfer of TV broadcast station licenses to Skydance.
Carr's handling of the CBS complaint has been condemned by both liberal and conservative advocacy groups—and former Democratic and Republican FCC commissioners and chairs—who say the FCC's approach is a threat to the constitutional right to free speech.
Carr has also sent letters to companies—including Comcast—alleging that their diversity policies are "invidious forms of discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws." Carr last month threatened to block mergers pursued by companies that enforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
We contacted Comcast and NBC today and will update this article if they provide any response to Carr's news distortion allegation.
Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.
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an 4 25
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr is threatening to revoke the licenses of broadcasters who don’t toe the current administration's line on the wrongful deportation of a legal U.S. resident.
“Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that [Maryland father Kilmar] Abrego Garcia was merely a law-abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man.’ When the truth comes out, they ignore it,” Carr posted on X Wednesday. “Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.”
Carr then repeated false claims that Garcia “was validated as a member of the violent MS13 gang — a transnational criminal organization,” despite the administration's evidence resting its entire argument of Garcia's gang affiliation upon him "wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie” and the claim of a confidential informant who has not stepped forward.
READ MORE: 'Cannot and will not support': 12 Republicans just dealt a blow to Johnson’s budget bill
Carr’s statement comes on the heels of the Trump administration purging officials and independent agencies in an effort to remake government in his image.
Reaction to Carr’s post on X was quick.
“Chair of the FCC threatens broadcasters that don't peddle the administration's lies about a man who they sent to a hellish prison in another country probably for life,” wrote Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Adam Gaffney. “Nothing to see here, all is well.”
Former NH Magazine reporter Jesse Singal said it was “insane,” for the “chair of the FCC, a longtime close Trump ally, threatening broadcasters for not serving as megaphones for this administration's endless b------t.”
READ MORE:'Not going to flinch': Expert predicts Supreme Court will hand Trump another 9-0 loss
“The FCC chair should not be implicitly threatening broadcasters on the basis of news channels’ editorial decisions,” posted University of Massachusetts at Amherst Ethics Associate Professor Itai Sher. “This is outrageous and horrible from the standpoint of free speech.”
Other critics lamented the FCC falling under the heel of the White House.
“The FCC is not the Ministry of Truth,” wrote Nico Perrino, executive vice president of free speech group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “It cannot ignore the First Amendment and weaponize its authority to target news outlets for critical coverage of the administration.
See Carr’s original post here.
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04/14/2025
by
Kyle Mantyla RWW
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Trump leans into the idea of sending American criminals to a Salvadoran prison
Trump has spent months talking about deporting American criminals. The White House has said it’s a real idea. Maybe we should take the threat seriously.
- Hannah Allam @ ProPublica: American Rendition: Rümeysa Öztürk’s Journey From Ph.D. Scholar to Trump Target Languishing in Louisiana Cell
Rümeysa Öztürk’s arrest and detention reveal what President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign looks like on the street level.
- Jonathan Mahler @ The New York Times Magazine: How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin’s Russia
What explains the Trump administration’s radical reversal toward Moscow?
- David Gilmour @ Mediaite: Trump Demands FCC Punish ‘CBS Fake News’ for ‘Out Of Control’ 60 Minutes: ‘They Should Pay a Big Price’
President Donald Trump launched a new attack on 60 Minutes, this time demanding regulatory retribution over recent segments on Ukraine and Greenland — calling on “highly respected” FCC chair Brendan Carr to “impose the maximum fines and punishment” possible on “out of control” network CBS.
- Alex Galbraith @ Salon: "He's going to have a third term": Bannon tells Maher Trump is sticking around in 2028
Bannon's comments come after Trump shared he's "not joking" about an unconstitutional third-term.
- Will Neal @ The Daily Beast: DOJ Wants to Give Capitol Rioters a Refund for Damage They Caused
Court documents filed this week suggest some insurrectionists could receive a check for their troubles.
- Warren Throckmorton @ Telling Jefferson Lies: Mike Johnson's False Jefferson Prayer: The Rest of the Stor
On January 3, 2025, Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson was re-elected to be Speaker of the House. In his acceptance speech, he quoted a prayer that he said Thomas Jefferson said every day during his presidency and every day of his life thereafter. There is a problem with this story. The prayer was written 56 years after Jefferson died. Jefferson never said the prayer even one day of his life.
- John Fea @ The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Expect to see more David Barton in the coming year
This past week David and Tim were invited to the White House as part of a team planning special faith focused events for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
- Melody Schreiber @ The New Republic: Measles Is Spreading, and RFK Jr. Is Praising Quacks
Last week, an 8-year-old girl became the second child and the third person to die of measles in the current outbreak. But it was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, who dominated the news cycle.
- Phil Williams @ News Channel 5: Men behind Tennessee's Christian nationalist settlement: 'This country belongs to Jesus,' not the Jews
Andrew Isker compares Jews to "foster children," who cannot be trusted with the family credit card. C.Jay Engel argues Jews "have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life."
- Christine Fernando @ The Associated Press: An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges
As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists. But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion abolitionists, are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming “baby killer” at her while she speaks with students. Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security.
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LTR
:{:{Dear Mr. Roberts,}:
I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal. In particular, I want to ensure that your companies are not promoting invidious forms of discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws.
As you know, the Communications Act and Commission rules prohibit regulated entities—like Comcast and NBCUniversal—from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, or gender.1 Indeed, the FCC’s longstanding Equal Employment Opportunity or EEO rules set forth specific requirements that both Comcast and NBCUniversal must adhere to. Nonetheless, I am concerned that Comcast and NBCUniversal may be promoting invidious forms of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations.
For instance, Comcast states on its website that promoting DEI is “a core value of our business” and public reports state that Comcast has an entire “DEI infrastructure” that includes annual “DEI day[s],” “DEI training for company leaders,” and similar initiatives. NBCUniversal has similar DEI initiatives, including executives specifically dedicated to promoting DEI across the TV and programming side of the business. But promoting invidious forms of discrimination cannot be squared with any reasonable interpretation of federal law.
It can only deprive Americans of their rights to fair and equal treatment under the law. Despite the emergence of DEI initiatives in recent years, these forms of discrimination have long been condemned by America’s civil rights laws. Indeed, the Supreme Court has stated that “‘[d]istinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.’”2 Likewise, the Supreme Court has written that racial classifications “threaten to stigmatize individuals by reason of their membership in a racial group and to incite racial hostility.”3 For this reason, the Supreme Court has stated that, in the government context, “action based on race—a group classification long recognized as in most circumstances irrelevant and therefore prohibited— should be subjected to detailed judicial inquiry to ensure that the personal right to equal protection of the laws has not been infringed.”4
President Trump took quick and decisive action to root out the scourge of DEI. In his first week in office, President Trump issued an Executive Order that will end the radical and wasteful DEI programs that have spread across the federal government.5 Likewise, President Trump issued an Executive Order to end illegal discrimination and restore merit-based opportunity across the private sector. 6 In that latter Executive Order, President Trump wrote that illegal DEI policies “undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.” President Trump’s Executive Order also tasked federal agencies with combatting illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.
At my direction, the FCC has already taken action to end its own promotion of DEI.7 As a next step, the FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act and the agency’s EEO rules, including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination. I am starting this broader effort with Comcast and NBCUniversal for two reasons. First, as noted above, there is substantial evidence that your companies are still engaging in the promotion of DEI.
Second, your companies cover a range of sectors regulated by the FCC—from cable to high-speed Internet and from broadcast TV stations to MVNO wireless offerings. Therefore, I expect that this investigation into Comcast and its NBCUniversal operations will aid the Commission’s broader efforts to root out invidious forms of DEI discrimination across all of the sectors the FCC regulates.}:
... NO FOOT
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jdv is rumble owner?!
MMA
MAGA media’s rising influence with the Trump administration
Written by Gideon Taaffe & Jack Winstanley
Research contributions from Kayla Gogarty & Jack Wheatley
:{:{Published 02/26/25}:
President Donald Trump has been openly courting MAGA media figures — giving them significant access to his new administration and even appointing former Fox News hosts to prominent positions in the government.
The Trump administration has simultaneously welcomed MAGA influencers into the White House, Cabinet departments, and other federal agencies while restricting access of mainstream media that have long covered those institutions. Many of these right-wing media figures have previously spread outright misinformation and hateful conspiracy theories — and now some of them appear to be giving policy cues to the new administration.
The Trump White House has become increasingly hostile to mainstream media as it favors right-wing influencers}:
- Trump terminated The Associated Press’ access “in the Oval Office, on Air Force One and at other White House events” because the outlet refused to update its style guidelines after he changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” Politico reported, “President Donald Trump personally decided to bar The Associated Press from some White House events and spaces, the White House said in court documents Monday.” Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on February 25 that the White House will now directly control which outlets are in the press pool, a task historically managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association. Politico, [2/24/25; The Hill, 2/25/25]
- The Pentagon announced that NBC, The New York Times, NPR, and Politico will “rotate out of the building” to make space for the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart, and others. The switch is the first iteration of the Pentagon’s new “Annual Media Rotation Program,” which The Washington Post reports “will swap news outlets from print, TV, radio and online news for other organizations that have not had the opportunity to report from the office space, according to the memo.” The Washington Post, [2/1/25; The Daily Beast, 1/31/25]
- The White House began using the “new media” seat at the White House press briefings to let in far right-wing voices. The “new media” seat was established to “welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators” to the White House. White House, [1/29/25; Columbia Journalism Review, 2/19/25]
- Trump’s first administration fostered a feedback loop between the White House and Fox News. The first Trump administration regularly relied on Fox News talking points and hired at least 20 former Fox employees. This feedback loop seems primed to continue in his second term, with Fox News recently hiring the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to host a weekly show. Media Matters, [11/19/24; MSNBC, 2/6/25]
- Trump has already appointed many members of right-wing media to high-level positions in his second administration. These appointments include former Fox News personalities Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy, and Tulsi Gabbard as Cabinet secretaries. Other Fox News personalities like Leo Terrell and Dan Bongino have similarly been appointed to high-level positions. Trump has also included more fringe members of right-wing media like Darren Beattie and Kash Patel. Media Matters, [11/14/24, 1/17/25, 2/24/25, 1/28/25; CNN, 2/12/25; CBS News, 1/28/25; Reuters, 2/4/25]
- ## MAGA media figures have been given extensive access to the administration
- Real America’s Voice correspondent Ben Bergquam, Fox News’ Bill Melugin, and conservative personality Dr. Phil (real name Phil McGraw) have all participated in ride-alongs for ICE raids or Border Patrol activities. In one video posted by Dr. Phil, he can be seen standing alongside Trump “border czar” Tom Homan and questioning a detained individual about his background and immigration status. YouTube,[
; Fox News, 1/23/25; People magazine, 1/31/25]
- Real America’s Voice correspondent Ben Bergquam, Fox News’ Bill Melugin, and conservative personality Dr. Phil (real name Phil McGraw) have all participated in ride-alongs for ICE raids or Border Patrol activities. In one video posted by Dr. Phil, he can be seen standing alongside Trump “border czar” Tom Homan and questioning a detained individual about his background and immigration status. YouTube,[
- White House press briefings have welcomed various MAGA media figures and influencers — some of whom have occupied the “new media” seat. According to Media Matters’ internal data, Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski, Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle, Real America's Voice’s Brian Glenn, The Gateway Pundit’s Jordan Conradson, and conservative podcasters Sage Steele and the hosts of the Ruthless Podcast have all appeared at the White House briefings. Other attendees have included OAN’s Daniel Baldwin, Newsmax’s James Rosen, Turning Point USA’s Monica Paige Luisi, and The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese. Instagram, [2/12/25; WhiteHouse.gov, 1/29/25]
- Pavlovski also visited the Federal Communications Commission and met with Chairman Brendan Carr, who said, “His commitment to free speech and diversity of viewpoints serves as a terrific model for all business.” Twitter/X, [2/12/25]
- Conservative radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton were invited to broadcast their show from the Pentagon. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had previously been interviewed on Travis and Sexton’s show and stated: “You all are welcome anytime in the Pentagon press room, or if you want to broadcast from the Pentagon, we will figure out a way to make that [happen].” Axios, [2/18/25]
- Conservative streamer Benny Johnson posted an image with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, promising that “video soon will blow your mind” and proclaiming his visit was a “Front Seat to the Golden Era.” Johnson additionally stated that Zeldin “has got some amazing things going on at The EPA. Can’t believe how much I enjoyed my time in the building today.” Twitter/X, [2/19/25]
- Former Fox Nation host Lara Logan, who has a history of pushing conspiracy theories, reportedly joined a formal State Department listening session about international aid. NPR reported: “She spoke for about five minutes — longer than other participants, according to five people who attended the event. … They say Logan charged that foreign aid programs were rife with corruption and demanded accountability. According to three attendees, Logan repeatedly invoked the idea that crimes had been committed and called for imprisonment of those involved. Logan said in Texas, where she lives, the middle class had been hollowed out, and money used for foreign aid instead should go to support those families.” NPR, [2/20/25; Media Matters, 3/18/22]
- On January 28, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk posted an image of himself sitting alongside Vice President JD Vance on a plane, writing, “Thanks for the ride Mr. Vice President!”Kirk also joined Donald Trump Jr. on his trip to Greenland ahead of his father’s inauguration, posting a picture of himself alongside the president’s son on January 7. Twitter/X, [1/28/25; The Independent, 1/7/25]
- Right-wing pundit Jack Posobiec, who previously promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, was invited to participate in Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s first official trip to Europe. Posobiec has also shared a video of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Ukraine, posted an image of himself in a conference room in front of U.S. and Ukrainian flags, and claimed to be present for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Washington Post, [2/13/25; NPR, 2/21/25; Instagram, 2/13/25; Media Matters, 11/14/18]
- The Trump administration invited Dom Lucre, who has pushed conspiracy theories and misinformation, to attend a February 20 White House reception in honor of Black History Month. Lucre posted a video from the event with the caption: “President Trump has hundreds of Black conservatives at the White House to celebrate Black History month. The White House is currently filled with laughter, hope, and happiness.” Lucre previously made headlines when his X account was banned and then unbanned after posting imagery depicting child sexual abuse. Twitter/X, [2/15/25, 2/20/25; Forbes, 7/7/23]
- Former ESPN reporter Sage Steele, who now has a right-leaning podcast, was also invited to the White House for the Black History Month reception. Steele was pulled “off the air at ESPN after she called vaccine mandates ‘sick’ and ‘scary’ and questioned why former President Barack Obama identifies as Black even though he was raised by his white mother.” Failed Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker also reportedly attended the February 20 White House event. The Associated Press, [2/21/25; NPR, 10/6/21]
- ## MAGA voices — including some who have spread extreme conspiracy theories — are seemingly influencing the administration’s policies
- Far-right activist and self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer claimed Trump “took her advice” before calling for the United States to “take back” the Panama Canal. On February 7, Loomer claimed that Trump “actually called me one day, during the last election season, and was asking me about the Darién Gap, and he was asking me about my videos and my trip to Panama.” She noted that she urged Trump to “make it a policy position to take back the Panama Canal.” Media Matters, [2/11/25]
- The official U.S. Army account on X shared a post from far-right account “Libs of TikTok” and replied: “This is an old memo. DEI is dead at #USArmy.” In another post, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth replied directly to Libs of TikTok to say he was addressing the account’s concerns that an Air Force medical form “is asking for s*xual orientation, gender identity, and pronouns.” Libs of TikTok has repeatedly spread anti-LGBTQ hate and has supported the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Twitter/X, [2/14/25, 2/24/25; Media Matters, 3/15/24]
- Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association founder Richard Mack and online influencer Ann Vandersteel, who have both peddled conspiracy theories, claimed to have had direct communications with Trump “border czar” Tom Homan about mass deportations following the 2024 election.Vandersteel said she's had “private conversations” with Homan and Mack said he's “had several conversations” with Homan about mass deportations. Media Matters, [12/4/24, 12/10/24]
- Health misinformer Christiane Northrup said she was “working with people who are working in” the Department of Health and Human Services with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Northup has claimed COVID-19 “was part of a plot involving Deep State brainwashing and treacherous depopulation schemes,” “called the Centers for Disease Control a ‘covid death cult,’ and described the [COVID-19] vaccines as crimes against humanity.” Other anti-vaccine figures have also claimed to be “working with,” consulting, or sending recommendations about public health policy to Trump’s advisers. Media Matters, [2/4/25]
- In July 2023, MAGA podcaster Dan Bongino said, “I'm going to ask President Trump personally to be the FBI director to fire all of you,” claiming the bureau had worked to cover up alleged crimes by the Biden family; Trump has now appointed him to be the deputy FBI director. Accusing the bureau of being “totally, completely corrupt,” Bongino added, “I'm going to say can I be the FBI director just to fire everyone who knew about this, everyone, and didn't have the balls to say something?” Rumble, *The Dan Bongino Show*, [7/21/23; Politico, 2/23/25]
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RWW
02/11/2025
by
- Malcolm Ferguson @ The New Republic: Steve Bannon Finally Admits to Border Wall Grift in Guilty Plea
The former Trump adviser has admitted to swindling the Donald Trump’s MAGA base in the ultimate scam.
- Will Bunch @ The Philadelphia Inquirer: What Elon Musk wants is worse than you think
Few, if any, seem to understand what Musk, DOGE, or their hands-off patron in Trump truly want. It’s true that massive cuts in the programs that empower middle-class Americans will mean more money for things that Musk, Trump and their allies want, including more tax cuts for the super-rich and a large deportation army. But a community of folks who pay attention to Silicon Valley — the new center of power, not Washington — says the bigger idea is darker and much more sinister.
- Noah Lanard @ Mother Jones: Elon Musk Keeps Boosting White Nationalists on X
One user Musk amplified frequently attacks Black people and has said he is “impressed” by the Holocaust.
- Angry White Men: White Nationalist Explains How He Tries To ‘Fish’ For Attention From Elon Musk
Recently, X owner and Trump ally Elon Musk shared a post by Vincent James Foxx — a longtime antisemite and white nationalist. In a livestream for the far-right video-sharing platform Rumble, Foxx explained how he tailored his posts in an attempt to get Musk’s attention, and said that he’s trying to “fish” for more.
- Corbin Bolles @ The Daily Beast: Trump’s MAGA Media Enforcer Is Having ‘the Time of His Life’
Donald Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr is boasting to friends that he is having “the time of his life” after launching an all-out attack on the media, the Daily Beast has learned.
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Trump’s MAGA Media Enforcer Is Having ‘the Time of His Life’
BITE BACK
FCC chairman Brendan Carr has vowed to target all of Donald Trump’s enemies.
Corbin Bolies
Media Reporter
:{:{Updated Feb. 10 2025 tdb}:
Donald Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr is boasting to friends that he is having “the time of his life” after launching an all-out attack on the media, the Daily Beast has learned.
Carr has spread dread through top-ranked media executives since taking office at the same time as Trump. He has opened an investigation into CBS over its 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, threatening to upend its parent company’s merger with Skydance Media; reopened investigations into ABC and NBC over the Trump-Harris presidential debate and her appearance on Saturday Night Live; opened inquiries into NPR and PBS that questioned whether they deserved government funding; and sent a letter to a George Soros-owned California radio station over a report on immigration raids—and vowed not to stop.
Brendan Carr and Donald Trump.
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has remained laser-focused on President Donald Trump's enemies.
Brandon Bell/Getty
Many of his actions parallel Trump’s own private legal cases—particularly the pursuit of 60 Minutes, which Trump is suing for $20 billion, claiming it “doctored” the Harris interview to help her, which CBS denies—and are amplified by a gleefully pro-Trump personal twitter account.
The dizzying pace since Trump was sworn in has left television and media executives shaken. They fear that the FCC will pounce on minor errors to pursue lengthy and expensive investigations.
“It’s a stressful moment for everybody who’s just trying to do the good work that they’ve always thought they could do by recognizing that, if they do get it wrong, that the implications are—it used to be, you’d be embarrassed about a correction," one media executive told the Beast. “Now it can go into the stratosphere.”
pic.twitter.com/og0VBW0mxR
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) January 22, 2025
There are also fears that the FCC will seek to find ways to target other legacy brands traditionally been part of its remit, said another executive. The FCC regulates outlets that operates on broadcast airwaves, whether on television or radio—not cable.
“We have to see what they end up proposing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if our legal team is looking into it,” they said.
Kamala Harris and Maya Rudolph.
Kamala Harris' pre-election "Saturday Night Live" appearance is the subject of an FCC inquiry.
Amir Hamja/The Washington Post via Getty
The weekslong spree has achieved Trump’s desire to put media outlets on notice, prompting some media executives to work overtime to make sure they don’t become Carr’s next target.
“The change now is, it’s really, really important to, frankly, be near-perfect every day,” one media executive told the Daily Beast. “I think that’s kind of the the burden that exists, that we are under an incredible microscope.”
CBS Reveals Truth About Harris Interview Trump Is Suing Over
DOCTORED? NO
Corbin Bolies
Bill Whitaker and Kamala Harris.
Carr himself—a 46-year-old communications lawyer who has been on the FCC since 2017—has set out his stall in a series of Fox News appearances. The FCC declined a request for comment from the Beast.
Fox & Friends anchor Brian Kilmeade asked Carr last week whether CBS' release of the 60 Minutes interview will prevent news organizations from editing interviews with high-profile figures.
“Are you worried about the precedent of asking for these transcripts?” Kilmeade asked.
“No, not at all,” Carr said. “It’s actually interesting. Here is a precedent we’re following is the precedent that the Democrat FCC set when it came to Fox. There was a complaint lodged against Fox, and so they opened up a public proceeding on that. And we’re simply applying that precedent.”
CBS Reveals Truth About Harris Interview Trump Is Suing Over
DOCTORED? NO
Corbin Bolies
Bill Whitaker and Kamala Harris.
Carr appeared to refer to a 2023 complaint filed by the Media and Democracy Project to prevent Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp-owned Philadelphia station from renewing its FCC license.
The complaint, filed alongside ex-Murdoch official Preston Padden, claimed the Murdochs decision to broadcast lies about the 2020 election on Fox News, and the station’s airing of Fox News Sunday, should force it to lose its license. Former FCC chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed the complaint alongside those against ABC, CBS, and NBC last month.
Padden told the Daily Beast Carr’s claim about applying the law evenly was “bulls---.” He said the only reason Carr did not reinstate his FCC complaint was to appease Trump.
“Brendan Carr has one litmus test for the public interest, and that is whatever the Sun King of Mar-a-Lago wants,” he said. “Any FCC-licensed broadcaster who broadcasts anything that this president doesn’t like is going to be fair game for retribution by Brendan Carr. He is simply an agent of President Trump.”
Padden said a mutual friend told him that Carr was “having the time of his life.”
Perhaps the most pointed of his investigations is not the most high-profile.
Last week, the FCC sent a letter of inquiry to San Francisco radio news station KCBS 740 AM, asking it to justify reporting a statement from a pro-immigrant group that described the cars and locations of supposedly undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting raids in San Jose.
George Soros
George Soros' Soros Fund Management has become one of Audacy's largest shareholders.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty
A news host had read out claims by the group, called the Rapid Response Network, saying, “The County’s Response Network says agents in San Jose were in unmarked vehicles,” and describing the color, make and models of the cars and the streets they were seen on. Carr told Fox News it may break the “public interest” test for radio licenses, then tied it to what he claimed were “Democrat leaders in Congress saying it’s time for people to take fights to the street against Trump’s agenda.”
What he did not say—although Kilmeade did mention—was that the station’s owner, Audacy, is majority owned by an investment fund controlled by Soros Fund Management, the investment vehicle for MAGA bogeyman George Soros. Republican senators condemned the FCC last year for approving the purchase.
Carr said in November he intended to “take a very hard look” at the Audacy deal, claiming the FCC “bent over backwards” to give Soros the stations. Last week he echoed another MAGA trope about double standards as he explained his shock and awe attacks on the media.
“There are a lot of people who have been on this sort of upper road of the two-tiered system of government,” Carr told Fox News on Thursday. “And what I’m here to do is apply the law evenly.”
Media Reporter
corbin.bolies@thedailybeast.com
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DN AN 2 25
:{:{We look at the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on press freedom, and how the media has responded with bended knee in some cases, with Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The Trump administration has threatened journalists and media outlets for their coverage, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS and NPR over its funding sources. Meanwhile, a number of major news organizations face accusations of surrendering to Trump’s threats.}:
In December, ABC settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library. CBS’s parent company Paramount is reportedly in talks to settle a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Trump, who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump initially sought $10 billion in the lawsuit and is now seeking $20 billion. “What I see here is media organizations that have the power to fight back against Trump but aren’t doing it. I think that’s a failure of courage,” says Jaffer. “Every time one of those media organizations settles a case, the next organization finds it more difficult to resist Trump.}:
AMY GOODMAN: As a constitutional crisis grows in Washington, we begin today’s show looking at the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on press freedom. Last week, the interim U.S. Attorney in Washington Edward Martin threatened to prosecute anyone, including journalists, who, quote, “target” or, quote, “impede” Elon Musk and DOGE — that’s the Department of Government Efficiency. Martin’s letter came a day after Musk claimed it was a crime to identify the young computer engineers who have helped him gain access to highly sensitive information at agencies across Washington.
Meanwhile, the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, has opened an investigation into San Francisco-based KCBS over the radio station’s reporting on recent immigration raids. The FCC has also opened a broader investigation of NPR and PBS and their practice of airing underwriting announcements.
On Friday, Donald Trump openly called for The Washington Post to fire longtime columnist Eugene Robinson after he accused Trump of trampling the Constitution.
Meanwhile, a number of major news organizations face accusations of already bending a knee to Trump. In December, ABC settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library.
CBS’s parent company Paramount Global is reportedly in talks to settle a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Trump, who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump initially sought $10 billion in the lawsuit, but he’s upped it now to $20 billion. Last week, CBS took the unusual step of handing over its unedited tapes to the FCC. While the tapes showed no wrongdoing on CBS’s part, many believe Paramount might still settle the lawsuit. This all is happening as Paramount seeks federal approval for its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.
We’re joined right now by Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. His recent New York Timesopinion piece is headlined “This Is Not a Moment to Settle with Trump.”
AMY GOODMAN: So, we just went through some of the cases, but if you can go through them in depth and explain what is happening here? Is the media obeying in advance?
JAMEEL JAFFER: Yeah. I mean, that’s how I see it. I see a kind of failure of courage among the largest and most powerful media organizations in the country. You know, you started with the ABC settlement. This is a case that arose out of George Stephanopoulos saying on TV that President Trump had been found liable for rape, when in fact the jury had found him liable for sexual assault. Trump sued, claiming that he had been defamed. I don’t think that there —
AMY GOODMAN: And let’s be clear: It was the judge who said, in common parlance, this would be rape.
JAMEEL JAFFER: That’s right. That’s right. I don’t think that Trump had any chance of winning that lawsuit. If ABC had contested it, ABC would have been protected by the New York Times v. Sullivan rule. New York Times v. Sullivan is a 60-year-old case that gives citizens broad power to — or, broad latitude to criticize government officials, makes it very difficult for public officials to recover in defamation actions. I don’t think there’s any way that ABC would have lost that case. But they settled the case.
Second one is Meta’s settlement with Trump. This is over Meta’s decision or Facebook and Instagram’s decision to deplatform Trump after January 6th. Trump sued, claiming that his First Amendment rights had been violated. This, I think, is a totally frivolous case. There’s no way that Trump would have won that case against Meta, but Meta settled it, as well, for $25 million — again, all going to Trump’s presidential library.
And then, finally, this reported CBS settlement, or possible CBS settlement, with Trump over the action — over the case that involved the editing of this Kamala Harris interview. I don’t think that CBS edited that interview in any unusual way at all. The kind of editing they did is routine for journalism, for media organizations. Trump knows that. Again, no chance that Trump would have won that case, but CBS is reportedly thinking about settling it.
So, what I see here is media organizations that have the power to fight back against Trump but aren’t doing it. I think that’s a failure of courage, and it has implications for those particular media organizations, because I think it affects their credibility and their prestige. But it has larger press freedom implications, as well, because every time one of those media organizations settles a case, the next organization finds it more difficult to resist Trump. And this is a moment in which we need these organizations to hold the powerful to account, hold Trump to account, and this is exactly what they should not be doing.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Jameel, what about this latest story this week about the FCC investigating a San Francisco —
JAMEEL JAFFER: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — radio station, KCBS, for its coverage of immigration enforcement in San Jose?
JAMEEL JAFFER: Yeah. I mean, here, too, I think you see the Trump administration trying to use its regulatory authorities in a way that chills press freedom, chills legitimate reporting. No question here that that radio station was within its rights to report what it did. And what Trump is trying to do or what the FCC is trying to do here is chill not just that radio station, but other radio stations and other media organizations, from engaging in reporting that is inconvenient to the administration.
I mean, I mentioned the CBS case. You know, another aspect of that case involves the FCC, with the FCC having demanded from CBS that it turn over unedited transcripts of its interview with Kamala Harris. And I don’t think in another —
AMY GOODMAN: And they released them.
JAMEEL JAFFER: And they released them. And they released them. I don’t think in another — in any other era a news organization would have just turned over those transcripts without at least trying to get a judge to narrow the request or look at the transcripts in camera before turning them over. But CBS just turned them over.
And, you know, I think that there’s a real risk here that, on paper, we’re going to have all the First Amendment rights in the world. The First Amendment is going to look great on paper. But the organizations that we need to assert their First Amendment rights, to defend press freedom, are increasingly just not doing it.
I mean, I’ve named a few of the settlements, but even before we got to the settlements, there were the L.A. Times and The Washington Post, which quashed editorials that would have been — that would have provoked Trump. This happened before the election. Then there were the Big Tech companies that all made million-dollar donations to Trump’s inaugural fund. You know, I think what we’re seeing is media organizations, including social media organizations, lining up to ingratiate themselves with President Trump. And that is an extremely troubling thing at this particular moment.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, of course, it’s not just media organizations. Universities. Talk about the free speech rights that are endangered, increasingly endangered, at universities by the Trump administration, for instance, threatening to deport pro-Palestinian students.
JAMEEL JAFFER: Yeah, I mean, I think this is — it’s a larger issue across society. Many of the institutions that we need to serve as checks on government power at a moment like this are not doing their jobs.
Now, this question about, you know, in what circumstances can the government deport noncitizens for exercising their First Amendment rights, I think, is a hugely significant question. And I want people to understand that the First Amendment protects noncitizen students at American universities just like it protects everybody else. The government cannot constitutionally deport people simply because they have exercised their First Amendment rights, simply because they have criticized a war overseas or criticized our government or criticized another government. Those are not constitutionally permissible justifications for deporting somebody.
So, you know — and you don’t have to take my word for it, because a couple years ago, the Knight Institute, my institute, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Biden administration, and we were able to get two memos, two legal memos, in which the Trump administration had considered its authority to engage in these kinds of deportations based on First Amendment activity. And Trump administration lawyers wrote memos that acknowledged that noncitizens at universities in the United States are protected by the First Amendment and that deporting them on the basis of their speech would almost certainly be unconstitutional.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, Jameel Jaffer, talk about what happened Friday night with the casino magnate Steve Wynn asking the Supreme Court to revisit the Times v. Sullivan defamation rule, the Supreme Court decision, one of the two most important press freedom cases.
JAMEEL JAFFER: Yeah, so, I mentioned New York Times v. Sullivan already. This has been a campaign by some conservatives over the last few years to try to get the Supreme Court to narrow or overrule New York Times v. Sullivan, which would be a very big deal because it’s The New York Times v. Sullivan, more than any other case, that protects our ability to criticize government officials, which is core to our democracy. And this —
AMY GOODMAN: What was it established under, New York Times v. Sullivan? What case was that?
JAMEEL JAFFER: So, it’s called New York Times v. Sullivan. It’s a case involving — The New York Times was sued by a Southern police official who was concerned about civil rights activism in the South and complained, in particular, about an ad in The New York Times that he said — he said accurately — was inaccurate. The ad included some inaccuracies in it. And he said, because the ad included inaccuracies, The New York Times was liable. I think it was for $500,000, which at the time would have been crushing liability even for The New York Times. And if he had won that case, other news organizations reporting on the civil rights movement would have been crushed, as well. But the Supreme Court said, if you’re criticizing government officials, you have to have broad latitude, even to get things wrong. So, unless the public official can show what’s called actual malice, so unless the public official can show that the newspaper or the writer recklessly published false information or deliberately published false information, there’s no recovery possible. The First Amendment forecloses recovery.
So, now some conservatives are pushing to get the Supreme Court to overrule that decision. I think it’s a misguided campaign, even, you know, if you want the things that these conservatives want. I think this is going to backfire on them. But this cert petition that was filed on Friday night, this request that the Supreme Court hear the case, is another effort in this longer campaign to get the Supreme Court to either scale back or overrule New York Times v. Sullivan.
AMY GOODMAN: Jameel Jaffer, thanks so much for being with us, director of the Knight —
JAMEEL JAFFER: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: — First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. We’ll link to your piece in The New York Times, “This Is Not a Moment to Settle with Trump.”
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MMA
Trump is trying to throttle the free press — and U.S. moguls are going along with it
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 02/04/25
President Donald Trump is wasting no time in carrying out his goal of throttling the free press. Over the first two weeks of Trump’s presidency, his appointees have wielded federal regulatory authority to punish outlets the president dislikes — and American media moguls are responding with submission.
Trump has turned standard conservative attacks on journalists into one of the hallmarks of his political agenda.
He takes as his model Hungary’s autocrat Viktor Orban, who has “effectively dismantled the news media in his country” as “a central pillar of Orban’s broader project to remake his country as an ‘illiberal democracy,’” as New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger noted in an extraordinary warning last year.
During his first term in office, Trump repeatedly tried to leverage state power against his despised “fake news,” and together with his Project 2025 allies has developed a playbook to attack, defund, and delegitimize news outlets in his second.
Major media companies began signaling before Trump took office that they were willing to play ball with his administration in order to preserve their business interests. But since Inauguration Day, as Trump’s appointees have begun showing their intentions, executives at several news outlets have gone into full retreat.
CBS News preps for a Trump settlement
In the final weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump denounced CBS News’ editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris as “the biggest scandal in broadcast history” and declared that CBS should be stripped of its broadcast license. But in addition to invective and threats, Trump also filed a lawsuit against the outlet for producing journalism which displeased him.
The suit, which alleged that CBS airing different portions of Harris’ answer to a question in different venues constituted “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference,” drew derision from First Amendment attorneys, who described its legal theory to CNN as “ridiculous junk” and “a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media.”
But over the past few weeks, reports have indicated that CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, may be preparing to settle the suit with Trump. Such a settlement would be “an extraordinary concession by a major U.S. media company to a sitting president, especially in a case in which there is no evidence that the network got facts wrong or damaged the plaintiff’s reputation,” as The New York Times put it.
But Paramount needs federal approval for its proposed merger with Skydance Media, the production company founded by filmmaker David Ellison, and apparently sees giving the president a payoff as a valid way to smooth the path. Pressure for the settlement is coming from top Paramount shareholder Shari Redstone, the Times reported, who “stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount.”
LA Times’ biotech industry owner goes all-in for RFK Jr.}:
Billionaire doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong once drew plaudits for using a small fraction of the vast fortune he made in the biotech industry to purchase and sustain his hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times.
But Soon-Shiong’s involvement in the paper’s operations has become more heavy-handed since the final months of the presidential campaign, with the owner repeatedly weighing in on Trump’s behalf. Over the past few weeks, Soon-Shiong, whose medical patents are subject to federal oversight, has begun cheerleading for the confirmation of the anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services.
“‘I truly believe [Kennedy] has the American public's best interests at heart,’ Soon-Shiong tweeted Tuesday in a post he pinned to the top of his account on X, formerly Twitter, for much of last week,” NPR reported. “It was one of 18 messages promoting Kennedy that Soon-Shiong — a billionaire surgeon and medical inventor — posted over the course of four days, which included Kennedy's confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.”
Soon-Shiong’s support for Kennedy appears to have bled into his paper’s operations as well. On Friday, an op-ed contributor accused the paper of deceptively editing the piece he submitted in order to remove his criticisms of Kennedy’s nomination.
- ### CNN tries to move on
Journalists at CNN regularly drew vicious attacks from Trump and his supporters during the president’s first term. During a tone-setting press conference shortly before he took office, Trump lashed out at then-White House correspondent Jim Acosta as “fake news” and “terrible.” And Trump’s salvos at the network went beyond just words — his Justice Department tried to block a merger involving CNN’s then-parent company..
This time, CNN’s corporate leadership appears less willing to leave the network vulnerable to Trumpian retribution. Network chief Mark Thompson led an editorial meeting the day before Inauguration Day in which he instructed CNN talent “to be forward-thinking and to avoid pre-judging Trump” and to avoid “expressing any outrage of their own” or “relitigat[ing] the past,” former CNN reporter Oliver Darcy reported in his Status newsletter.
As for Acosta, he left CNN last week rather than accept Thompson’s offer to anchor the network’s coverage from midnight to 2 a.m. ET.
Trump’s FCC targets ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, and PBS}:
The tip of the president’s anti-press spear is Brendan Carr, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission whom Trump elevated to chair. Carr authored Project 2025’s chapter on the FCC and has notably refused to reject Trump’s repeated calls for the commission to yank the licenses of broadcast networks whose reporting he dislikes.
Following his promotion, Carr sent a letter to Bob Iger, the CEO of ABC parent company Disney, in which he denounced the network for having “contributed” to the “erosion in public trust” and pointedly referenced the FCC’s regulatory power.
Carr also restored a right-wing group’s bias complaints targeting NBC, CBS, and ABC for purportedly biased coverage of the presidential campaign, which his predecessor had dismissed. In response to the CBS complaint, the FCC demanded that CBS News provide the unedited transcript and tapes of Harris’ 60 Minutes interview, adding government pressure to the benefit of Trump’s private lawsuit. The network ultimately submitted to what one legal expert described as a “highly partisan intervention” with “no historical antecedent.”
And on Wednesday, Carr announced a new FCC probe of underwriting announcements produced by NPR and PBS, “with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.”
- ### Defense Department retaliates against news outlets
The Pentagon announced Friday night that the defense correspondents at NBC News, The New York Times, Politico, and National Public Radio are all required to vacate their dedicated workspaces. Their spots will instead go to the right-wing One America News Network, New York Post, and Breitbart — and theoretically to the progressive HuffPost, which does not have a Pentagon reporter and did not request space.
The move came a week after the Senate confirmed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.
//
Take Trumpist threats to jail journalists seriously
:{:{09/23/24}:
Donald Trump’s authoritarian playbook to crush the free press in a second term}:
:{:{10/29/24}:
“Fake News Networks”: Trump and Project 2025’s goal to attack, defund, and delegitimize the press}:
10/16/24
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F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said the inquiry could help Congress decide whether to continue funding local stations.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” said Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, who was appointed by President Trump.
Benjamin MullinDavid McCabe
By Benjamin Mullin and David McCabe
Jan. 30, 2025
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has waded into the politicized debate over NPR and PBS, ordering up an investigation that he said could be relevant in lawmakers’ decision about whether to continue funding the public news organizations.
Brendan Carr, the chairman, said in a letter to NPR and PBS on Wednesday that the inquiry would focus on whether the news organizations’ member stations violated government rules by recognizing financial sponsors on the air.
Mr. Carr said that NPR and PBS stations operate as noncommercial broadcast organizations, but that they may be airing “announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”
“To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for-profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements,” Mr. Carr wrote, “then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.”
The letter is the latest action from President Trump’s allies to target NPR and PBS stations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-funded organization that backs them. Executives at NPR and PBS stations have been bracing for a potential battle over government funding, gaming out financial worst-case scenarios.
Mr. Carr, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, said he did not see a reason for lawmakers to continue funding the organizations. He said that he planned to notify members of Congress about his investigation.
Katherine Maher, the chief executive of NPR, said in a statement that the organization’s practice of using sponsorships, also known as underwriting, “complies with federal regulations.”
“We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules,” Ms. Maher said. “We have worked for decades with the F.C.C. in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States.”
PBS said in a statement that it was proud of “noncommercial educational programming,” and worked “diligently to comply with the F.C.C.’s underwriting regulations.”
Two F.C.C. commissioners released statements taking issue with Mr. Carr’s investigation. Anna Gomez, a Democrat, said that the investigation appeared to be an attempt to “weaponize the power of the F.C.C.” Geoffrey Starks, also a Democrat, said that Mr. Carr’s statement gave him “serious concern.”
NPR and PBS have for decades aired sponsorships under rules set forth by the government. While public broadcasters are restricted by law from accepting traditional commercials, the F.C.C. has become more permissive over the years about what public stations are allowed to air. The F.C.C.’s evolving stance on the issue has gradually allowed public radio stations to become less dependent on government funding.
Eric Nuzum, a former NPR executive and co-founder of the audio consulting and production company Magnificent Noise, said that sponsorships and underwriting differ sharply from advertising on commercial TV and radio in several respects.
“The difference is, in a commercial, the sponsor can say anything they want — it’s their time,” Mr. Nuzum said. “In an underwriting situation, the station provides an acknowledgment of who’s providing the funding, along with basic information about the underwriter.”
Earlier this week, NPR executives told staff members that a memo issued by Mr. Trump’s administration imperiled two grant programs benefiting local stations, citing guidance from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Mr. Trump’s administration rescinded that memo after it was blocked by a judge.
Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said he believed Mr. Carr seemed to be setting up a legal pretext for interfering with public media.
“The end of Mr. Carr’s letter tellingly goes far beyond underwriting and talks about his thoughts on whether public media should be funded at all and notes that this underwriting issue might be relevant to a broader legislative debate,” Mr. Stern said. “That was troubling to read.”
A correction was made on Jan. 31, 2025: An earlier version of this article misstated the status of legislation that would defund public media. There is no legislation pending before Congress.
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact him securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or at benjamin.mullin@nytimes.com. More about Benjamin Mullin
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies. More about David McCabe
A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 31, 2025, Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: New F.C.C. Chair Questions PBS and NPR Sponsorships. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: Federal Communications Commission, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service
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As a candidate, Donald Trump insisted he knew nothing about the far-right Heritage Foundation's authoritarian Project 2025 playbook. But as president-elect, Trump is appointing some of its authors to powerful positions in his Cabinet.
On Friday, Trump confirmed previous reports that he would be appointing Russell Vought – president of the Center for Renewing America (CRA) — to be his next director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Vought served in that role in Trump's first administration, and is likely to bring back Trump's controversial "Schedule F" executive order that would make it easier for a president to fire tens of thousands of federal civil service workers and replace them with political loyalists.
After leaving the Trump White House, Vought founded the CRA, which was one of the key partner organizations backing Project 2025. In August, two undercover journalists got Vought to admit in a hidden camera interview that Trump's rhetoric distancing himself from Project 2025 was just for show, and that he has secretly "blessed it" and was "very supportive" of the plan.
READ MORE:Trump's plan to 'aggressively' reshape government would create 'army of suck-ups': report
As Agence France-Presse journalist Bill McCarthy noted in a Friday tweet, Vought is just the latest Project 2025 contributor to join the Trump Cabinet. Brendan Carr, who Trump nominated to chair the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authored the section of Project 2025 that specifically dealt with the FCC.
Other Project 2025 contributors taking key roles in the Trump administration include Michigan Republican Party chair Pete Hoekstra — who was tapped to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Canada — and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who the president-elect has since nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Tom Homan, who will be Trump's new border czar, is also listed as a contributor to Project 2025.
Homan's contributions were likely concentrated among Project 2025's recommendations for reforming the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That section, which was chiefly written by former Trump DHS official Ken Cuccinelli, called for rapidly expanding the DHS' staff and consolidating various border enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to be under one umbrella. At a far-right conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this summer, Homan — who was Trump's ICE chief in his first administration — promised that if he were given a position within the Trump administration, he would assemble "the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen."
“They ain’t seen s— yet. Wait until 2025," Homan said at the National Conservatism conference.
READ MORE:'He is on our side': Org behind Project 2025 boasts repeatedly about close ties to Trump
During the 2024 election cycle, Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly sought to associate Project 2025 with Trump, causing the Republican nominee to repeatedly distance himself from it on the campaign stump due to the document's overwhelming unpopularity. Notably, Trump transition co-chairman Howard Lutnick — who Trump selected to head the U.S. Department of Commerce — promised to blacklist anyone linked to Project 2025 from serving in his second administration, calling the Heritage Foundation and its sweeping policy document "radioactive."
Trump keeping Project 2025 at arms' length didn't pass muster, however, with CNN finding that more than 140 of Trump's former advisors and staffers helped assemble the document. Heritage itself has also heavily promoted its close relationship with Trump on its website and in its fundraising materials, pointing out that in his first year as president he implemented roughly two-thirds of their policy recommendations.
"President Trump addressed a group of Heritage members. He confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is on our side," a 2017 email from Heritage read.
In June, People magazine published a comprehensive report delving into Project 2025, calling it a "far-right, Christian nationalist vision for America that would corrode the separation of church and state, replace nonpartisan government employees with Trump loyalists and bolster the president's authority over independent agencies."
READ MORE:'Nearly all' voters know about Project 2025 and majority have negative view of it: report
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Trump’s War With the Press Takes a Terrifying Turn
Donald Trump has nominated a Project 2025 author to lead the Federal Communications Commission.
Donald Trump has announced that the next Federal Communications Commission chair would be Brendan Carr, the senior-most Republican on the FCC and a contributor to Project 2025.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Trump said in a statement Sunday. The president-elect did not mention Carr’s involvement in Project 2025.
In his Project 2025 chapter, Carr outlined his agenda for the FCC. Carr wrote that one of the goals for Trump’s administration should be reining in Big Tech’s “attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square,” according to Business Insider. Carr suggested that companies be unable to censor content unless it is illegal, allowing consumers to choose their own content filters and fact-checking services.
Carr’s intentions for social media are perhaps best demonstrated by X, which has been transformed into a MAGA misinformation echo chamber by its owner, Elon Musk, who seems to have permanently attached himself to Trump’s side.
Carr also pushed to ban TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, does not sell its U.S. operations, warning that Americans were receiving their news and information from China.
In addition to addressing Big Tech, Carr also wrote that the FCC should focus on “promoting national security, unleashing economic prosperity, and ensuring FCC accountability and good governance.”
House Democrats previously called for an investigation into Carr over his partisan activity, but it did not result in formal action, according to NPR. Carr said he received approval from FCC ethics officials to contribute to the right-wing playbook.
Trump spent months on the campaign trail disavowing Project 2025, an authoritarian policy road map cooked up by the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation, only to now welcome its architects into the fold.
Last month, Carr railed against Kamala Harris’s surprise appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, calling it “a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule” and “biased and partisan conduct.” Trump was offered equal time on NBC, and the FCC said they had “not made any determination regarding political programming rules, nor have we received a complaint from any interested parties.”
Still, Carr took up the bullhorn on behalf of the president who’d appointed him to the FCC in 2017.
FCC rules dictate that only three commissioners can be affiliated with the same political party at any given time, and none can have a financial interest in any commission-related business. The FCC is responsible for regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. Under Trump’s first administration, the FCC repealed net neutrality rules, which were then reinstated this year.
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