Why FCC Chief Brendan Carr May Be the Most Dangerous Man in Media

Brendan Carr commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission speaks during a House hearing in Washington on May Photo Alex Wroblewski Bloomberg via Getty Images When Brendan Carr Donald Trump s Federal Communications Commission chair demanded that Disney ABC jump the influential media conglomerate replied How high That s effectively what happened when Carr an ardent Trump loyalist offered harsh criticisms of late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel s statements about Charlie Kirk s alleged killer The comments Carr stated were sick These companies can find way to change conduct and take action frankly on Kimmel or there s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead Carr explained adding that they could handle situation the easy way or the hard way Within hours Disney ABC opted for the easy way suspending Kimmel s show indefinitely In his effort to bring the media to heel Trump could not invent a better ally than Carr Disney took the action in the cross hairs Its move can t be separated from Carr s threats or years of Donald Trump s criticism of Kimmel The president promptly let the truth slip when he mentioned after Kimmel s suspension that television networks providing him bad publicity should have their broadcast licenses revoked It was the latest salvo in the war on freedom of speech waged by the MAGA movement a war in which Carr has been Trump s majority loyal lieutenant The FCC holds tremendous sway over broadcast media but inadequate administrations have pushed the boundaries of its power and limited appointees at the agency have openly talked about doing so with such nakedly political aims the way Carr does In his effort to bring the media to heel Trump could not invent a better ally than Carr who has laid out a plan for weaponizing the FCC against Trump s enemies Do you even understand the level of fit that BrendanCarrFCC has Please check pic twitter com zZYZt Q vj Benny Johnson bennyjohnson April It s not hard to see the extraordinary depth of Carr s dedication to Trump While a great number of bureaucrats wear American flag pins on their lapels to show loyalty to the country Carr has proudly posted photos of himself wearing a gold Trump bust demonstrating such total fealty that it won admiration on X from Benny Johnson another Trump loyalist From Plan to Action Carr jointed the FCC as a staff lawyer in and was appointed by Trump as a commissioner in In amid the presidential campaign Carr waged an unabashed campaign to be named FCC chair He appeared on Fox News espousing Trumpist talking points and authored the chapter on the FCC in Project the Heritage Foundation s controversial blueprint for a new Trump term Already a commission member Carr ignored the FCC ethics attorney s warnings about becoming the first sitting establishment official to work on a political document like Project and he brushed off admonishments to not use his official title in doing so Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent As the Biden administration wound down then-FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed four complaints before the commission including one against Fox affiliates and the Murdochs from the Media and Democracy Project which I co-founded As soon as he became chair Carr began implementation of a Trump-inspired agenda He reopened three of the complaints those with a conservative bent against ABC CBS and NBC affiliates He left ours in the trash even though it was based on the same inhabitants interest standard that that Carr now indicates to be championing in his occurrence against Kimmel Our matter is presently under appeal Carr s fellow commissioner Anna Gomez called out the moves I am concerned that this is a clear attempt to weaponize our licensing authority to instill fear in broadcast stations and influence a arrangement s editorial decisions Instilling fear to influence editorial decisions is exactly what Carr is doing He has also bullied companies into making moves that suit the Trump agenda After he threatened to hold up Paramount CBS s merger with Skydance Paramount paid a million lawsuit settlement to Trump and the merger was soon approved After a meeting as part of the deal David Ellison the billionaire Trump ally who owns CBS s new parent company made a series of pledges to Carr including a promise to scrap diversity initiatives at the channel Making good on another pledge after the merger Ellison installed an ombuds at CBS with strong conservative credentials Carr also launched investigations into NPR and PBS the community broadcasters lambasted by the right for a purported liberal bent Overall it has been a particularly functioning year for the FCC not least because of the campaign waged against Disney ABC Relentless Pressure Disney ABC is learning that if you give in to a bully once they will come back for more The company already paid off Trump for his claim to have been defamed by news anchor George Stephanopoulos Trump threatened ABC reporter Jonathan Karl just for asking impertinent questions And Carr played a pivotal role in the Kimmel affair It was only after his threat of FCC action that Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group two media conglomerates that own a host of local ABC affiliates declared they would be pulling Kimmel s show Under duress ABC briskly fell in line Trump and Carr s ability to push corporate media into doing what they want demonstrates how badly we need a diversity of media organizations not the industry consolidation in the hands of billionaire Trump allies we are seeing the present day Carr is taking aim at an independent media by pushing consolidation forward The FCC is considering removing the rules restricting consolidation of TV station ownership to give right-wing networks like Sinclair the latitude to increase their dominance in the distribution of information It s a calamity in the making for media in this country and Carr is doing it faster than anyone could have expected The post Why FCC Chief Brendan Carr May Be the Largest part Dangerous Man in Media appeared first on The Intercept