from the censor’s-gotta-censor dept
Brendan Carr was dragged earlier than Congress final week for some mild questioning about all of the horrible, unlawful bullshit he’s been as much as. Whereas the listening to principally centered on FCC independence and Carr’s failed bid to try to censor Jimmy Kimmel, it didn’t contact on the opposite extremist nonsense Carr’s been as much as, together with his assault on public media and destruction of client safety.
Whereas his larger profile targets have gotten all the eye, the Related Press has an excellent story it’s best to examine Carr’s efforts to bully a Bay Space radio station (KCBS) after it precisely knowledgeable locals concerning the goonish habits of masked ICE brokers.
Carr opened a pretend investigation into the community final February, claiming the station had violated ambiguous public curiosity requirements. The pretend inquiries had been tethered to a proper wing antisemitic propaganda marketing campaign making an attempt to hyperlink George Soros to those stations regardless of Soros’ restricted funding involvement being each irrelevant and three or 4 layers deep.
As our already struggling, extremely consolidated, and under-funded media retailers are likely to do, KCBS instantly folded beneath federal existential risk, simply as Carr hoped:
“KCBS demoted a popular anchor and dialed again on political programming, individuals stated. For months, reporters had been dissuaded from pursuing political or controversial subjects and as an alternative inspired to deal with human curiosity tales, in response to the present and former staffers.”
When staffers did attempt to cowl extra political fare, they are saying the tone was closely scrutinized and the content material was watered all the way down to a bland gruel to keep away from upsetting Republicans:
“Doug Sovern, a veteran political journalist on the station, stated he was sidelined after Carr introduced his investigation.
“‘Chilling impact’ doesn’t start to explain the neutering of our political protection,” stated Sovern, who retired in April. He stated his retirement was not associated to the controversy.”
As Carr was distracted by his different extremist initiatives, like failing to censor Kimmel, a few of the scrutiny eased and the station regained the boldness to a minimum of report on issues just like the No Kings protest. However the bullying seems to have had its supposed impact. At one level, a KCBS reporter says he was denied the chance to interview Katie Porter as a result of administration felt it could upset Donald Trump:
“Within the weeks after the immigration story, Seelig requested Sovern to cancel an interview he had arrange with California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter out of worry she would say one thing unfavorable about Trump, he stated.”
For its half, feckless station administration is making an attempt to fake that nothing occurred:
“There was no change in coverage or editorial route at KCBS,” the station added. “We stay dedicated to offering our Bay Space listeners with trusted information, together with our political protection, that’s balanced and goal.”
KCBS, one of many first AM radio stations ever licensed, had already been steadily defanged by the identical media consolidation Carr is trying to speed up by the elimination of media consolidation guidelines.
Carr first focused KCBS with a letter of inquiry, which prompted the station’s company proprietor, Audacy, to right away shift into CYA mode, reviewing the political statements and social media posts of reporters for any trace of “political bias” (by which they after all imply criticism of proper wing ideology and coverage).
I’ll reiterate in case you forgot: Audacy (which owns most U.S. radio stations now) was focused by the correct wing earlier this 12 months by a bigoted propaganda marketing campaign that relied on antisemitic tropes to smear the corporate with lies. A marketing campaign that featured the correct wing pretending to care concerning the very media consolidation they encourage and allow at each step.
It’s one other instance of how journalism doesn’t actually align notably properly with the objectives of consolidated company energy, which in flip weakens it to exploitation by unhealthy actors (like, oh, authoritarians). That’s a significant cause why the U.S. desperately wants impartial media, worker-owned media, and publicly-owned media, the latter of which Carr can be making an attempt to destroy by sham investigations.
Once more, it’s necessary to step again and examine this all as an unbelievable, generational, and intensely profitable proper wing and company joint undertaking to dismantle actual journalism, accountability, and knowledgeable electoral consensus. This isn’t one thing that simply popped up with Trump, although it did assist allow Trumpism.
The destruction of media consolidation limits. The substitute of journalism with lazy infotainment journalistic simulacrum. The demonization and dismantling of public media. The hijacking of the most important social media networks to be used for proper wing agitprop. And now the ham-fisted censorship marketing campaign by dim authoritarian zealots in opposition to the few remaining main broadcast networks Trump-allied proper wingers don’t at present personal.
None of it has been remotely delicate, and the marketing campaign leads to a U.S. press that’s totally and comically incapable of being trustworthy with itself (or its viewers) about what’s really taking place. That is, to be clear, the precise trajectory seen in nations like Russia or Hungary that stumbled face-first into everlasting autocratic rule.
Filed Beneath: 1st modification, brendan carr, censorship, chilling results, doug sovern, fcc, free speech, ice
Firms: audacy, kcbs
