What happened
President Donald Trump said on social media Sunday he was “so thrilled” that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr was “looking at the licenses” of some “Highly Unpatriotic ’News’ Organizations.” Responding to complaints from Trump about media coverage of the Iran war, Carr on Saturday threatened the broadcast licenses of any networks “running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news” — unless they “correct course.”
Who said what
The Trump administration is “turning its fire on reporters and threatening news outlets” as the war becomes mired in “dismal polling and a muddled message,” Axios said. In a “similar vein” to the comments from Trump and Carr, The New York Times said, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday “delivered a lengthy complaint about CNN’s coverage of the war,” especially a report that the administration wasn’t prepared for Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.
Carr posted his broadcast license threat from Mar-a-Lago, where he was “seen talking with Trump,” said CNN. But Trump’s “attack dog atop the FCC” has “very little power to follow through” on his “crusade” to police the news. The FCC doesn’t regulate cable news or broadcast networks, just their local stations and affiliates. Carr’s threats “violate the First Amendment and will go nowhere,” said Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC’s lone Democrat, on X. “Broadcasters should continue covering the news, fiercely and independently.”
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What next?
Carr’s “threats are hollow” on revoking broadcast licenses, said public interest lawyer Andrew Jay Schwartzman. But the “implicit threat” of stifling regulatory approvals provides him a “real hammer.” What Carr “is describing is government control of the press,” said Tara Puckey, CEO of the Radio Television Digital News Association. But “journalists aren’t intimidated by a bully with a briefcase.”
