Hi,
For years, Donald Trump has attacked the free press as "the enemy of the
people," called for journalists to be prosecuted, and threatened to strip
the broadcast licenses of TV networks that dared to fact-check him.^1
And now Trump has picked Brendan Carr, a MAGA loyalist who will carry out
Trump's agenda of retribution, to run the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), the agency responsible for regulating most media.
Carr has already said he plans to go after CBS and NBC over Kamala
Harris's appearances on 60 Minutes and Saturday Night Live, and he refused
to disavow Trump's call to push ABC off the air after the presidential
debate.^2
This is what authoritarianism looks like — the government abusing power to
suppress speech and the free press. Demand Progress Action has fought for
years against government attacks on free speech, and we're now facing one
of our greatest threats ever.
[ [link removed] ]Will you make a donation to Demand Progress Action and support our
work, including fighting back against the corrupt and anti-democratic
agenda of Brendan Carr, Trump's pick for FCC chair?
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your
donation will go through immediately:
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Of all the extreme, corrupt, and unqualified people that Donald Trump has
selected for his administration, one of the most dangerous is Brendan
Carr.
A co-author of Project 2025, the 900-page authoritarian manifesto that
Trump claimed to know nothing about during the campaign, Carr is a
hardcore partisan who will weaponize the FCC to punish journalists who
hold Trump accountable.
In testimony before Congress in September, Carr declined to speak out
against Trump's suggestion that ABC should lose its broadcast licenses
after two of its journalists fact-checked him during the presidential
debate.^3
Then, in October, Carr attacked NBC after Harris appeared on Saturday
Night Live, telling Fox News that the FCC should "keep every remedy on the
table" to punish NBC, including revocation of its broadcast licenses.^4
And later that same month, he attacked CBS over its 60 Minutes interview
with Kamala Harris and suggested that he would block the merger of
Skydance and Paramount, CBS's parent company, in retaliation.^5
The FCC is traditionally a nonpartisan agency that rarely gets involved in
programming content beyond enforcing obscenity standards. Carr has shown
that he will use his power as FCC commissioner to punish Trump's perceived
enemies, and his statements may already be having a chilling effect on
journalism.
Trump's first FCC chair, Ajit Pai, was terrible, and Demand Progress spent
four years fighting to limit the damage Pai could do. But Brendan Carr may
be even worse, and we need to be ready to work even harder.
[ [link removed] ]That's why we're writing to you today: Will you donate $10
to help Demand Progress Action resist Brendan Carr's far-right agenda, and
push for other key reforms?
With gratitude,
The team at Demand Progress Action
[ [link removed] ]DONATE
Sources:
1. Columbia Journalism Review, "Trump Wins, the Press Loses," [ [link removed] ]November
6, 2024.
2. Mother Jones, "Trump's FCC Pick Wants to Intimidate Broadcasters and
Enrich Trump Allies," [ [link removed] ]November 18, 2024.
3. The Verge, "Here's FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr sucking up to Donald
Trump by threatening to take NBC off the air," [ [link removed] ]November 4, 2024.
4. Mediaite, "'It's a Simple Question!' House Democrat Throws Down With
FCC Commissioner On Trump's Call to Strip ABC's Broadcast License,"
[ [link removed] ]September 19, 2024.
5. Deadline, "Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Says '60 Minutes'
Complaint 'Likely To Arise' As Part Of Agency Review Of Skydance-Paramount
Merger," [ [link removed] ]November 19, 2024.
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