(Adnkronos) – Donald Trump supports the threats made by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by him, Brendan Carr, to revoke the licenses to broadcast to broadcasters who publish critical news on how the president is managing the war with Iran, accusing these defeatist media of being “corrupt and highly unpatriotic”. “They got billions of dollars worth of American frequencies for free and use them to perpetuate lies, both in the news and during their shows, including the late shows of idiots, who get huge salaries for terrible ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “As I said on The Apprentice, ‘fired’,” he then concluded, referring to his personal television career which then served as a springboard for his political one.
The president then reiterated Carr’s threats who, in a post on X, said he could deny or revoke broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, to broadcasters who transmit “false or distorted news, known as fake news”. Urging them to “change behavior before the license renewal time comes,” Carr concluded that “the law is clear, broadcasters must operate in the public interest and lose their licenses if they do not.”
And then the clearly political message from the chairman of the commission, who should be independent: “when a political candidate wins overwhelmingly after facing falsehoods and distortions, something is very wrong. It means the public has lost trust in the media, we cannot allow this to happen, it’s time for a change.”
Democrats immediately protested: “if Trump doesn’t like how you report on the war, this commission will revoke your broadcast licenses, this is patently unconstitutional,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. For Senator Brian Schatz, Carr’s words are “a clear order to produce positive news about the war, otherwise licenses will not be renewed.” And colleague Edward Markey wrote a letter to Carr accusing him of “staining” the name of the commission he leads and asking him to resign.
Carr’s threats came after Trump on Saturday launched a harsh attack on media outlets that he claimed had reported false news about US planes damaged in a bombing in Saudi Arabia, accusing them of being “scum” who want the United States to “lose the war.” And in the preceding days, Pete Hegseth and the White House had harshly attacked CNN for citing sources who admitted that the Trump administration had not adequately prepared, at the time it launched the operation against Iran, for the eventuality of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
