A top MAGA goon has ominously promised the administration will be urging an overhaul of U.S. television to ensure a better selection of patriotic programming.
“They’ve amassed a tremendous amount of power,” Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr told the New York Post on Wednesday of the nation’s network broadcasters. “They’ve effectively turned those local TV stations into mouthpieces for the foie gras, oftentimes, that they’re producing in New York and Hollywood.”
It was not immediately clear what Carr meant by his mixed-metaphorical reference to duck liver pate. Less ambiguous were his comments about “pushing” policies at the FCC to “rebalance” the current state of things, citing as an example his “Pledge America Campaign,” which urges networks to air “pro-American” materials to mark the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding later this year.
“People love great pro-America stories, pro-America content,” he went on. “If you look at the box office numbers, that stuff does phenomenally well. And in fact, we’re trying to encourage broadcasters to do more of that.”
Trump—who over the weekend said reporters should be charged with treason, which carries the death penalty, for negative coverage of his war against Iran—hired Carr as FCC commissioner during his first term, and elevated him to FCC chair last January.
Critics have repeatedly accused Carr of selectively applying laws against critics of the president and his orbit. He launched investigations immediately after assuming his new role into NPR, PBS and other networks, alleging anti-Trump bias, and has been accused of using “threats and coercion” to secure a brief suspension of Jimmy Kimmel after the comedian made what were seen as off-color remarks following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last September.
More recently, he has issued warnings to broadcasters that he would push to revoke their licenses if they published “misleading” coverage of the war Trump has now launched in the Middle East.
“I am so thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations,” Trump wrote in response to the move.
Anna Gomez, the only Democratic member of the FCC, has meanwhile blasted Carr’s latest threats as “grounded in neither reality nor law,” and urged broadcasters to “stop falling for the FCC’s intimidation tactics.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the FCC and the White House for comment on this story.
