FCC To Install A ‘Bias Monitor’ At New CBS To Ensure Network Kisses Trump’s Ass
from the can't-buy-me-love dept
Last week Trump’s FCC lackey, Brendan Carr, quickly set about rubber stamping approval for the $8 billion CBS Skyance merger, now that CBS execs paid their $16 million bribe to the king.
One of the key merger conditions to net approval was the installation of a sort of FCC “bias ombudsman,” who’ll be installed at CBS to ensure that the new network is appropriately feckless when it comes to criticizing our buffoonish orange king. Making the rounds on right wing propaganda networks last week, Carr ironically insisted this was necessary in order to restore trust in U.S. journalism:
“They made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting. I think that’s so important,” Carr told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on his show Thursday night. “I mean, look, the American public simply do not trust these legacy media broadcasters. And so, if they stick with that commitment, you know, we’re sort of trust-but-verify mode, that’ll be a big win.”
CBS was technically bought by the billionaire Ellison family, close supporters and friends of Donald Trump. So the idea the network wasn’t already poised to kiss Republican ass without a babysitter is fairly laughable. The Ellisons are already making moves to buy right wing bullshitter Bari Weiss’ Free Press and put Weiss in an “advisor” role at CBS News, which speaks for itself.
Carr then confirmed that the FCC is installing a staffer whose entire job is to make sure a major U.S. news network is nice to our sensitive baby king:
“One of the things they’re going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,” Carr said. “So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the president. So that’s something that’s significant that we’re going to see happening as well.”
This is amazing if you’re old enough to remember how Republicans whined for decades about the “Fairness Doctrine,” a long since-discarded set of FCC guidance (which was never really enforced) that required broadcasters to at least try to be “fair and balanced” in their news coverage.
The idea was never very well thought out or implemented, and wouldn’t have fixed any of our modern media problems today anyway (consolidation under billionaire ownership, rampant propaganda), because it only applied to broadcast, not cable. Even if you could craft useful rules, the U.S. government is the last institution you want determining what news outlets can or can’t say, as is being demonstrated now.
The rule died in 1987 and the Republicans still whine and gnash their teeth about it to this day. They’ve spent an entire generation holding it up as a symbol of government oppression of free speech (again, even though it didn’t exist long, never worked, and never saw serious enforcement). Now the same party has directly installed a government babysitter at one of the nation’s biggest news conglomerates.
It’s a cliche, but Republicans claiming to “solve bias” while at the same time ensuring CBS is biased is positively Orwellian. MAGA likes to throw “Orwellian” around a lot, despite having clearly never actually read 1984, and has absolutely no idea that they’ve become the devils they pretended to despise.
On the bright side: CBS is going to be run by David Ellison, the nepobaby son of Larry Ellison. There’s no real indication David has absolutely any idea what he’s doing. These major mergers are already always ripe for disaster, given that the huge new debt created usually has to be offset by massive layoffs and a notable reduction in product quality (see, for example, the Time Warner Discovery merger).
That creates a sort of self-cannibalizing downward spiral for media executives who then lack the staff, funds, creativity, or credibility to meaningfully compete in the modern attention economy.
And with the internet eating major broadcasters’ lunch, it’s very likely that the Ellison family paid billions of dollars for a network whose fortunes are headed to the toilet, and whose viewers are headed elsewhere. They have the potential to create a right wing propaganda bullhorn that rivals Fox News; but it’s just as likely their disastrous management turns the network of Walter Cronkite into a sad, historical footnote.
Filed Under: 1984, authoritarian, bias, brendan carr, consolidation, fair and balanced, fairness doctrine, fcc, journalism, media, mergers, ombudsman, orwell
Companies: paramount, skydance
Comments on “FCC To Install A ‘Bias Monitor’ At New CBS To Ensure Network Kisses Trump’s Ass”
Then why, Brenden, are you getting your panties in a twist if CBS reports things about Trump like he’s in the Epstein files? If the American public don’t trust these stories anyway, wouldn’t they be the sort of “lies” you’d want broadcasters reporting on?
The “fairness doctrine” basically sabotaged George Takei’s political career because Star Trek reruns were considered to give him an unfair advantage (seriously). A law doesn’t have to be enforced to have a chilling effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Takei#Politics
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That’s not actually true. It was a (deliberate?) misinterpretation of the fairness doctrine that sabotaged Takei’s political aspirations. Just sayin’.
Fairness Doctrine
I lived during the Fairness Doctrine period and don’t recall it not working. It lasted from 1949 to 1987 – not a “short period”.
Bias monitor
Thery should just call it what it is… “Political Officer”
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”Zampolit.” It sounds better in the original Russian.
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Don’t turn around.
Der Kommissar’s in town.
At Minimum Boycott Skydance, Paramount, CBS
The very minimum everyone who isn’t on the side of this authoritarian regime, should boycott all things Skydance, Paramount and CBS, as they are now fully willing propagandist for the regime.
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As opposed to a propagandist for the previous regime.
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DEI is Back?
Bias monitoring looks like something we would have instituted at the height of woke culture at a university.
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Hold Your Breath
We’ve heard reports of some organizations publicly vowing to remove discriminatory practices like affirmative action and DEI, only to surreptitiously reinstall them behind the scenes. But a lot of the political extremists nowadays insist on getting their way on a daily basis, or else they will self deport from the job. So having an ombudsman for 2 years will ensure that there is no immediate turn around, and CBS will be able to have a fresh start.
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So you are in favor of government censorship and propaganda.
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Of course he is, unless it’s the other side that’s allegedly doing it. Then he think it’s treasonous.
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How is hiring someone to push widely-debunked intellectual sludge which can’t stand on its own merits “surreptitious” or “behind the scenes”?
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Kony, you’re the only one here who thinks it should be legal to fire people for being black.
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Yes, a fresh pill of crap!
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Koby, come the fuck on. If the Biden admin had ordered Fox News to have a “bias” ombudsman installed at Fox News you would have stormed the Capitol in retaliation.
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A fully psychotic phrase that only someone dedicated to contrarianism could make. You have reached a new low for incomprehensibility.
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The fascism you and you dear leader have embraced is extremism. Calling people who think racism and bigotry is a bad thing extremists is just telling on yourself. Installing a First Amendment-violating monitor at a press organization is extremism.
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You would make an excellent Minitrue worker.
Carr is correct
There is no irony in that. Trust in journalism hinges on whether the coverage of several consulted outlets significantly agrees.
That’s why the Russian populace by and large trusts the news it is able to access. And that’s the way U.S. journalism is headed.
It will likely increase trust in U.S. journalism indeed. At the same time it will ride roughshod over the actual trustoworthiness of U.S. journalism and will derail one of democracy’s checks on abuse of power and accountability of government.
Which is the desired effect. The overall pride in U.S. government may well increase while being utterly undeserved.
In my regular updates on where we are on the Babylon 5 timeline of fascism...
Season 3 episode 14. Wherein galactic broadcaster ISN is permitted back on air (After the events of S3e10, which followed my last observation of where we were a while ago, S3e9, in which the president violated the chain of command in instituting martial law) only as a propaganda arm of President Clark’s regime.
Oh my
A bi ass monitor? This Epstein thing gets weirder and weirder.
Government Ombudsman Reporting to the President?
Ohh… FOIA time..
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GORP
Reminds me of Bezos that didn’t wanted to interfere with Washington Post when he bough it. It the same kind of people sitting on too much power, and as always, there is not a single reason to believe they’ll just let it be.
Right, the Bias Compliance Officer.
They are for ensuring you are using the correct and RIGHT(wing) bias.
In a not-zero number of cases, it’s less that they don’t know and more that they don’t care. Trump and his American fascism gives MAGA what they’ve always wanted—the chance to be cruel to the marginalized out in the open—and they’ll accept basically anything in exchange for that. For all the hullabaloo about the Epstein files, I’d wager that a bunch of MAGA supporters would forgive Trump if he put out a tape of him fucking an underage girl in the Oval Office; hell, there’s already one MAGA supporter who thinks statutory rape can and should be defended.
MAGA doesn’t care about becoming the baddies. MAGA only cares about inflicting cruelty and pain and suffering onto those who “deserve” it. That’s why they adamantly oppose the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. That’s why they’re okay with the new memo that basically says federal workers who are Christians can proselytize on the job. That’s why they’re okay with the Dade-Collier Concentration Camp and the ICE raids and the slow clawing-back of LGBTQ civil rights. The cruelty is the point and they want to revel in it.
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For all the hullabaloo about the Epstein files, I’d wager that a bunch of MAGA supporters would forgive Trump if he put out a tape of him fucking an underage girl in the Oval Office; hell, there’s already one MAGA supporter who thinks statutory rape can and should be defended.
I’m being dead serious when I say that if he’d just come out as soon as people started asking about the list and said something along the lines of ‘Yes I’m on the list, yes it was a bunch of little girls, but that was a long time ago’ I firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of his supporters would have already forgiven him and moved on.
The only reason it’s still a thing is because he keeps trying to cover it up and doing such a terrible job of it, ensuring that it keeps getting attention.
When will Paramount be forced to replace Star Trek with the Republican Space Rangers?
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A group of soldiers, enhanced in size and strength? Yeah I can see republicans wishing they were space Marines from 40K
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They’d have to drop the homoerotic suggestions.
you got this one wrong, Karl
When Carr says this ombudsman is “reporting to the president”, he’s talking about the president of Paramount, not “of the United States”. The ombudsman is employed by Paramount, not the FCC.
Ombudsmen used to be common at every news network and big newspaper until they went out of style. While Paramount and the Trump Administration both have their hands dirty, an ombudsman is not Big Brother.
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Even if you’re right, the president of Paramount will be pressured by Trump and his bootlicking lackeys to keep Trump happy “or else”. This still comes down to partisan political control of CBS’s news output; to believe otherwise is to delude yourself.
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It is unclear that Carr is under that impression, although it is what Paramount believes.
Oooh, so close
“I mean, look, the American public simply do not trust these legacy media broadcasters.
He’s absolutely correct that the publics doesn’t trust them, the part he gets wrong is that the public doesn’t trust the legacy media broadcasters because they already act as propagandist for the republicans, constantly sanewashing anything a republicans politician says or does whether from fear of being accused of ‘bias’ or simply because that’s what the owner wants.
Creating their own little Ministry of Truth to ensure RightThink to ‘restore trust’ is like noticing that the boat is sinking because it has a hole in it and responding by drilling a bunch more holes.
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Well, the other half-ish of the pulbic doesn’t trust them because sometimes they report facts.
Or
Withor Without Diaper?
Sounds like something straight out of Nazi Germany.
“They made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting. I think that’s so important,” Carr told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly
Self-debunking statements are all the rage.