Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr joked recently that “[m]ore Americans trust gas station sushi than the legacy national media.” That statement, sad but true (or perhaps not so sad), is indicative of the new Trump chair’s approach to his job: to call out the powerhouse institutions that have long gotten a free pass on their relentless bias, illegal DEI practices, and general disservice to the American people. The chairman has had enough, and the left is losing its collective mind as a result.
The current iteration of that fight is prompted by a complaint filed by my organization, the Center for American Rights, against CBS for its misleading editing of then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with 60 Minutes. The chairman has taken those charges seriously (as he should) and held a public comment period that ended this week. Numerous everyday Americans spoke up, critical of CBS’s electioneering, while left-wing senators and media groups are outraged at the supposed assault on the First Amendment.
Typical is Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who has opened an “Inquiry into FCC’s Political Targeting of Newsrooms” from his post as ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In his release announcing the probe, Blumenthal lambasts the FCC for its “unprecedented, intrusive investigations against media broadcasters under arbitrary and capricious pretenses.” The senator is concerned that these “vexatious investigation[s]” by the FCC “may be designed to intimidate newsrooms,” so he’s apparently decided to launch his own investigation to intimidate the chairman into dropping the commission’s investigations.
Democrat Sens. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, and Gary Peters of Michigan sent a similar letter blasting the chairman, intoning against the agency “weaponizing its authority over broadcasters and public media for political purposes.”
That’s rich coming from anyone who supported the Biden administration’s weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice against pro-life grandmas and K-12 school moms. But it’s especially ironic coming from Blumenthal and Markey.
Hellbound and Down 