Trump Is Targeting Broadcast Networks. The FCC Is Poised to Help Him.

Federal Communications Commission decisions “were meant to be beyond the reach of the current occupant of the White House,” the agency’s sole Democratic commissioner told NOTUS.

Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via AP

As President Donald Trump continues to attack media organizations, the Federal Communications Commission is uniquely positioned to weaponize its regulatory framework to help him. Critics say it’s already started.

The FCC is turning into a “wing of the MAGA movement” under its Trump-appointed chair, Brendan Carr, said Timothy Karr of Free Press, a nonprofit that promotes free speech and press freedom.

“I think there’s an emerging pattern here of collusion between the Trump White House and Trump Inc. and the Carr FCC,” Karr said. “I think we’re going to see this pattern play out throughout the remainder of Trump’s term, and we’re going to see other media companies that anger Trump subject to this kind of coordinated attack from the White House and the FCC.”