How the MAGA Plan to Control TV Triggered a Free-Speech Fight
Under Trump, the F.C.C. has used obscure regulatory powers to crack down on network TV. Some conservatives are pushing back.
On a Wednesday morning in mid-December, Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, faced off with a potentially hostile witness — Brendan Carr, the conservative Republican who heads the Federal Communications Commission.
Cruz called Carr to testify before the committee in October, days after Carr very publicly demanded that ABC suspend the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, citing a monologue about Charlie Kirk’s killer that inflamed the MAGA right. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr had said on a right-wing podcast. Disney, ABC’s parent company, took Kimmel off the air for a week.
Related Knowledge Center: Media and the law
Toxic politics and vast shifts in the technology landscape have created a plethora of thorny issues — both legal and ethical — for newsrooms, courts, and regulators.
The Meta-FTC trial | Section 230
Related Knowledge Center: Free speech and public protest
The First Amendment is facing challenging times: Crackdowns on campus protests prompted both-sides claims of intolerance. Attempts to head off dangerous health misinformation have been characterized as violations of free speech. Donald Trump is publicly punishing news outlets that deviate from his administration’s version of events while privately suing some outlets into submission.
The White House vs. the press | Voiceless America
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
Democracy and politics | Signalgate | The CBS submission | Voiceless America