Trump FCC Demands ‘Pro-America’ Media Programming All Summer Long
from the dear-leader dept
Most of Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr’s time lately has been split between destroying all consumer protection oversight and threatening media companies with fake investigations if they’re not appropriately deferential to our mad idiot king. The latter has tended to overshadow the former, but it’s all been an ugly combination of authoritarianism, regulatory capture, and rank corruption.
But every so often Carr pauses to do other stuff to show daddy Trump he’s a very good boy. Like his latest announcement that he’s creating a new “Pledge America Campaign” ahead of the country’s 250th birthday this July 4th. The campaign features a demand by Carr that U.S. media outlets make sure they’re airing “pro-America” programming through the summer holiday:
“Consistent with their longstanding public interest obligations, America’s broadcasters play a key role in educating, informing, and entertaining viewers and listeners all across America, and they are particularly well suited to air programming that is responsive to the needs and
interests of their local communities.The Pledge America Campaign enables broadcasters to lend their voices in support of Task Force 250 and the celebration of America’s 250th birthday by airing patriotic, pro-America content that celebrates the American journey and inspires its citizens by highlighting the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the Trump Administration today.”
This would obviously be far less ominous if Carr hadn’t spent much of the last year trampling all over the First Amendment, trying to censor comedians who make fun of Trump, threatening talk shows with fake investigations if they’re not friendly to Republicans, and abusing the FCC merger approval process to try and force large companies to be more racist and sexist.
While this is framed as a “voluntary initiative,” Carr’s recent history of launching costly and pointless investigations into companies that aren’t dutifully obedient lurks quietly in the background. You can clearly infer that Carr defines “programming that is responsive to the needs and interests of their local communities” as programming that kisses Republican ass and ignores criticism of Republican policy.
You’ll notice that Carr specifically singles out broadcasters because he’s trying to abuse the FCC’s public interest standard control over “publicly owned” airwaves:
“If Carr’s pledge is truly voluntary, there would be no reason to limit it to broadcasters, said Harold Feld, a longtime telecom attorney who is senior VP of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. “If this were genuinely intended as voluntary, and genuinely about celebrating America, there is no reason to limit this to broadcasters,” Feld told Ars. “Cable operators are equally free to celebrate America, as are podcasters for that matter.”
The Trump FCC’s lone Democratic Commissioner (the authoritarians refuse to fill the other vacant commission seat), Anna Gomez, had this to say about the campaign over at Elon Musk’s right wing propaganda website:
Carr’s other effort to “empower local communities” has involved destroying popular media consolidation limits so that Trump-friendly broadcasters like Sinclair can merge and become more powerful than ever. It’s really not subtle how badly the MAGA movement wants a North Korea, Hungary, or Russia style media that delivers nothing but 24/7 agitprop blindly praising dear leader.
They’ll keep pushing toward their goal until they run into something other than soft pudding in response.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, agitprop, anna gomez, authortarian, brendan carr, broadcasters, consolidation, donald trump, fcc, media, pledge america campaign, propaganda
Comments on “Trump FCC Demands ‘Pro-America’ Media Programming All Summer Long”
I, for one, look forward to new episodes of Squirrel and Hedgehog.
Re: Over the Hedge
Good Cartoon series and Movie.
In Trump’s America, you don’t ask what your country can do for free speech… the FCC tells you what counts as speech! What a country!
I wonder what words to use…
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Burma Shave.
How is this different?
Putin asks Russian broadcasters to run patriotic, pro-Russia campaign.
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Basically none of what you’re saying is true, but I find this ESPECIALLY funny since your ideal media model is something government owned like the BBC.
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Spoken like someone who is willfully ignorant when it comes to the actual output of the BBC, which is largely center right. This is why idiots like Ben Shapiro and other American talking heads keep getting on to politics shows on it and being slapped down by people whonhave spent decades working on the right when their ‘you’re all lefties!’ act fails.
I live in the UK and despite being headed up by conservative political appointees and carrying water for lunatics like Farage and Boris for the past fifteen years, the BBC is subjected to continual attacks from the right for not being unquestioningly ‘patriotic’ enough… And by patriotic, they mean celebrities daring to have opinions that go against theirs, having documentaries that occasionally explain we were the baddies during the time of empire, and having non white people appear on daytime TV. The same kind of flag draped censorship Brendan Carr is attempting to inflict.
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Buddy, I know you’re a marxist, but nearly all media is left-wing besides Fox and National Review. BBC is notably further left than most.
The thing is, I know you actually think this, and it MEANS YOU ARE FUCKING INSANE.
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Assert harder, that’ll sure prove it
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On the claim that the BBC is further left than most. That’s a sign of someone who is lying and partisan.
If you look at various media bias rating services, they actually disagree on the direction, but all say it’s mostly centrist with a slight lean. It’s just that they disagree about the lean.
AllRise says they lean left. https://www.allsides.com/news-source/bbc-news-media-bias
Media Bias/Face check says they lean right. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/bbc/
Ad Fontes Media says they lean left. https://adfontesmedia.com/bbc-bias-and-reliability/
But none show any significant lean to the left. The idea that the BBC is a far left org could only come from someone who is lying deliberately or too stupid to matter.
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So you definitely know nothimg about the media landscape and the personnel and output of the BBC, got it. Shades of Benny Shaps yelling at lifelong conservative and Rupert Murdoch acolyte Andrew Neil that he’s a looney leftist for asking him to defend his views.
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No. No, it is not. The overwhelming majority of mainstream media outlets are center-right with maybe a slight lean to the left on occasion. That you see credible reporting on factual information as “left-wing” is your problem.
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Way too many people think anything to the left of Fox News is “dangerously leftist”.
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Prove your claim, then. I’ll wait.
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Absolutely nothing you said true but I find it especially funny since you want a prosthetic forehead on your real head AND a rock to wind a string around!
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Someone in this town is tryin’ to burn the playhouse down.
Re: Ya really think so?
This is an Open Forum of Literate and Illiterate, to Discuss and Figure out how to Explain the idiocy happening.
And I think the group is close to 1/2 right, Which is a higher rank then Either Demo or Repub groups.
As for the rest of the nation. Each state has its own problems and Solutions.
If you really like to rattle on, go have Fun with Quora. They are Full of those who will debate you to Death.
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Basically none of what you’re saying is true, but I find this ESPECIALLY funny since your ideal media model is something government owned like the BBC.
And what exactly is this fucking trump ‘directive?’ Non-government interference? Seriously, is English not your first language, because you come off like one dumb motherfucker with your ‘observation.’
Fucking fool. And you wonder why most of us have written you fucktards off? You’re fucking morons, and you’ll be morons until the next pandemic takes more of you out.
Wait, which pro-American? Pro North American? South American? Central American? The Multi cultured American or the Nazi German fascist one? I think we need a better definition of what he wants.
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The NFL gave a great example by doing promotion of Puerto Rico instead of the usual Super Bowl halftime act.
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To me, being “Pro-America” includes acknowledging our faults and our past mistakes, believing we can and should do better, and trying to do so.
I don’t think that’s what Carr means, either.
I would do malicious compliance and broadcast actual American accomplishments on repeat like the southern defeat in the civil war and the repeal of slavery, the Nazi defeat in WW2, Trump’s loss in 2020, Trump’s conviction, Nixon leaving office in shame, the passage of civil rights acts, Roe v Wade, Brown v Board of Education, Loving v Virginia, Obergefell, etc.
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That wouldn’t be helpful when your objective is to suck up to Trump and his flunkies in order to avoid “investigations”.
It certainly has Pravda and KCBC (Korean Central Broadcasting Committee) overtones.
Trey and Matt just scrapped their plans for next season.
How unexpected of Trump to suddenly demand left-wing content be shown.
Conservatism has been solidly anti-American for longer than America has existed.
It is truly heart-warming that such a personage as Brendan Carr, in Washington, D.C., is enabling broadcasters to be responsive to the needs and interest of my local community.
I am about to shed a tear, because I love Big Brother!
Celebrate Expanding Rights and Dissent
This sounds like a call for a narrative onslaught. The story of America can celebrate expanding rights and a challenge to authoritarians and white supremecists. If Trump wants to throw down then give it right back. If he thinks he controls the narrative he has another thing coming. Podcasters should flood the airwaves with civilly disobedient narratives that celebrate the true history of America.
Seems a bit premature to assume that the US is gonna make it to its 250th anniversary.
Every accusation a confession, every self-given label a rejection of.
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to protest injustices, the rule of law, constitutional rights… The regime that positively hates everything that makes the country ‘great’ telling people to focus on those same things in their coverage would be tailor made for some malicious compliance if the companies involved weren’t grovelling at the regime’s feet for scraps if not firmly on the regime’s side.
Patriotism means, among other things, standing up for your country when it’s doing the right things and standing up to your country when it’s not, so of all the things the regime wants to celebrate it certainly doesn’t want any actual patriotic content.
When Trump starts behaving like an American, maybe people will then start to consider whether he should be treated like an American. So far, it’s a moot point.
“We gonna party like it’s 1955!!!” (Take us to Pleasantville ASAP.)
They can do whatever they want, as far as I’m concerned. I rely on my own media archives, and the only time I watch anything resembling television is either sports (with the sound turned off) or programming I purchased and “ripped” to my hard drives. As for “news”, a wide variety of sources remain available online, including this site.
If there’s one thing we can count on from “the cloud” and all of the streaming services, it’s that we CAN’T count on the content we want being available at any given moment. Since I find that unacceptable, I have an expensive collection on the 100T of storage currently installed on my primary entertainment computer, and yes, I DO have it all backed up. Not cheap, but neither is cable TV or any of the worthwhile available streaming services, and this is content that I OWN. Forever.
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“Television”? What is this television of which you speak? Is it some sort of god that all must mindlessly worship?
Coming soon: The 26, 2 hours per episode, part story of President Orange Man.
See Orange Man bravely standing on the shore and telling George Washington to row harder.
See Orange Man being first in line to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with his thick black Sharpie Quill.
See Orange Man as he wins World War’s 1 and 2 and 6 other wars since.
All this and more on Orange Man, the True (Sort of) Story of a Great Man.