Disney Sues FCC On First Amendment Grounds

 

Under the vindictive Malignant Fascist, his FCC has been used as a tool of coercion and censorship, threatening media outlets if they have programming that offends the MF.  Now, Disney / ABC is pushing back on the FCC's threat to challenge its broadcast licenses by suing the commission.  The Associated Press reports:

"Disney filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission alleging a violation of its First Amendment rights.

The suit comes after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday recently defended the agency’s actions against ABC, saying broadcasters have a duty to 'operate in the public interest' and the FCC is merely trying to restore that standard.

Carr has said the country should have a 'trusted, respected news media, and we’re not there.'

ABC had accused the agency of a brazen attempt to chill its constitutionally protected free speech — and by extension, that of every media outlet in the country. The network’s July comments came in its latest filing to the agency, expressing its formal opposition to the FCC’s early review, launched in April, of eight ABC local broadcast licenses well before they expire." (our emphasis)

The "public interest" that Carr refers to is clearly meant to be the MF's interest.  ABC's late night host Jimmy Kimmel has been relentless in his satirization of the buffoonish MF.  The pressure tactics worked on Paramount during the merger with Trumpist David Ellison's Skydance Media, which was approved by the FCC after Stephen Colbert's CBS show was cancelled as an obvious favor to the MF. 

Late last year, the MF sued the BBC for $10 billion under a bogus claim that a BBC documentary misrepresented the MF's instigation of the January 6 riot, causing him economic damage.  The BBC now has the MF on the ropes by asserting its right to see the MF's business and financial records to argue whether he was damaged financially or not.  Pushing back against a bully and his acolytes is better than rolling over and handing him your lunch money.

 

FCC Chair Threatens Media: Cheer Trump's War Or Else!

 

More outrageous extortion from the Malignant Fascist's regime as this uniquely awful and dangerous chode continues to audition for Propaganda Minister:

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened media stations with losing their broadcast licenses if they don't fall in line producing positive war coverage.

"Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up," Carr posted on X Saturday. "The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not."

Carr was referring to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump, who whined over negative media coverage of the ongoing war with Iran started by the U.S. and Israel.

Trump claimed reports about Air Force refueling planes hit by an Iranian missile strike at a Saudi Arabian air base were "intentionally misleading."

“The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (in particular), and other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War,” Trump posted. “Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts!”

Trump claimed the planes were not struck. But it's increasingly difficult to take the president at his word as the war progresses. Trump has refused to give a timeline, saying the war will end "when I feel it in my bones," has bragged about taking out "100%" of Iran's military while begging allied nations for help, and has denied the U.S. struck an elementary school in Iran that killed more than 170 people, despite evidence that points to the U.S. as being responsible.

For all of these life-costing blunders, Trump and Carr blame the press.

"The American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation’s airwaves," Carr said in his post. "It is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news." (our emphasis)

So far, very few in the media who've been pressured by the Malignant Fascist and his toadies have stood up.  Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, something that is of no interest or import to these fascists.  The media needs to stand up -- en masse -- now.   The courts might have something to say about this extortion also.

BONUS:  This is the correct response from Democrats. More here.

(Image: Getty)

FCC Thug Carr Remaking Media In Trump's Image

 

 

As the Malignant Fascist's Epstein files coverup flounders and his poll numbers plummet, his fascist minions like FCC Chair Brendan Carr are on a fast-track mission to ruin our country:

President Donald Trump and the Federal Communications Commission have vowed to force American broadcast media outlets to make significant changes.

CBS may be just the beginning.

"President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape," FCC Chair Brendan Carr told CNBC Friday. "The media industry across this country needs a course correction."

On Thursday, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the $8.4 billion merger between CBS parent Paramount Global and Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming is free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints and end diversity programs.

Trump has repeatedly attacked broadcast networks for what he perceives as unbiased news coverage and called on Carr to rescind their licenses.

"The new owners of CBS came in and said, 'It's time for a change. We're going to reorient it towards getting rid of bias," Carr said. "At the end of the day that's what made the difference for us."

Carr's comments suggest the FCC will ramp up efforts to rid mainstream media of what he and President Trump consider a deep and enduring liberal bias, creating an opening for more conservative views among the biggest media companies.

The FCC regulates broadcast media outlets, which use the public airways and are required to act in the public interest. Carr has cited the public interest standard in seeking the changes at CBS.

Democratic FCC Commission Anna Gomez accused Paramount of "cowardly capitulation" to the Trump administration. She also said the FCC was imposing "never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law."...

It's been observed that the model for this and many other moves made by the Malignant Fascist/ Project 2025 movement is the regime of Hungary's fascist Putin tool, Viktor Mihály Orbán.  Call it white nationalism, authoritarianism, fascism:  intimidation, bribes, followed by an imposed political agenda are all part of their playbook, and all are being employed by the Malignant Fascist to consolidate power before most are aware of what's going on and how to stop it.  Perhaps legal challenges can help slow the "course correction" that thug Carr boasts about. We're running out of other options.

For more on this bold attack on the First Amendment, check out LGM's "Smell the Fascism." For a story on how MAGAts are using frivolous lawsuits to shut down a liberal watchdog group, go here. 

(Photo:  Carr demonstrating how he's strangling the First Amendment / John McDonnell , Getty Images)