\n<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s communications licensing tsar fired a warning shot over the US broadcasting industry Saturday, threatening to cancel the spectrum permits of broadcasters pushing what he termed \u201choaxes and news distortions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr posted on social media that broadcasters running \u201cfake news \u2013 have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FCC has control over the electromagnetic spectrum, colloquially termed the airwaves, including \u201ccommercial and non-commercial fixed and mobile wireless services, broadcast television and radio, satellite and other services\u201d under the Communications Act of 1934.<\/p>\n
Carr\u2019s warning comes amid sustained complaints from Trump and members of the administration over its treatment by what it derisively terms \u201cthe mainstream media\u201d and what it considers unflattering or unpatriotic coverage of the conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n
In his post, Carr copied a Truth Social post by Trump complaining about \u201cmisleading\u201d coverage on Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet again, an intentionally misleading headline by the Fake News Media about the five tanker planes that were supposedly struck down at an Airport in Saudi Arabia, and of no further use,\u201d Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social.<\/p>\n
Trump singled out the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, saying that they \u201cand other Lowlife \u2018Papers\u2019 and Media actually want us to lose the War\u201d, calling the outlets\u2019 reporting \u201cthe exact opposite of the actual facts!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause the United States of America,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments came after defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has been accused of being thin-skinned about his portrayals in the media and attempting to restrict credentialled reporters from the Pentagon, lambasted the media\u2019s coverage of the conflict.<\/p>\n
Hegseth offered a lengthy dissection on Friday of what he termed \u201cfake news\u201d in relation to reporting on US-Israeli action in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome in this crew, in the press, just can\u2019t stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look up at the TV and they see banners, they see headlines. I used to be in that business. And I know that everything is written intentionally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hegseth singled out headlines reading \u201cMideast war intensifies\u201d alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets hit by Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow about, \u2018Iran increasingly desperate\u2019?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hegseth then referenced the acquisition of CNN parent Warner Bros Discovery by Paramount Skydance, owned by multibillionaire Larry Ellison and son David Ellison. \u201cThe sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
In his first interview as Paramount CEO last week, Ellison pledged to support editorial independence at CNN where staff have registered anxiety at the the change in ownership and potential implications for its editorial stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cCNN is an incredible brand with an incredible team,\u201d Ellison said, \u201cand we absolutely believe in the independence that needs to be maintained, obviously, for those incredible journalists, and we want to support that going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his post on Saturday, Carr said without any evidence that it was in the news industry\u2019s \u201cown business interests since trust in legacy media has now fallen to an all time low of just 9% and are ratings disasters\u201d.<\/p>\n
He indicated he could use access to the broadcast and communications spectrum, which is considered a public asset, to rectify the issue, setting up another potential clash between the government and the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation\u2019s airwaves,\u201d Carr wrote. \u201cIt is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carr also raised an archival gripe about media reporting of the 2024 election, which widely predicted a Democratic presidential victory when in fact the Republican candidate \u2013 Trump \u2013 won a plurality of the popular vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong,\u201d Carr said. \u201cIt means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Trump administration\u2019s communications licensing tsar fired a warning shot over the US broadcasting industry Saturday, threatening to cancel the spectrum permits of broadcasters pushing what he termed \u201choaxes and news distortions\u201d. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr posted on social media that broadcasters running \u201cfake news \u2013 have a chance now to correct<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[794,23803,2431,4698,23804,84,150,899,23802,81,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-46777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-broadcasts","10":"tag-chair","11":"tag-fcc","12":"tag-hoaxes","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-threatens","16":"tag-throttle","17":"tag-trump","18":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}