President-elect Donald Trump stated last weekend that the new administration set to take office in January will be up and running just a few hours after he is officially inaugurated. This is a statement that his pick for Federal Communications Commission head is taking very seriously. Brendan Carr, who is the current FCC commissioner, sent out a letter to Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, stating that he is fully planning to hold news networks, like ABC News, which is owned by Disney, accountable during his time in the position of chairman.
Incoming FCC chairman sends a letter to the CEO of Disney (owner of ABC) telling him “Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly.” https://t.co/9J5yZJgkbT
https://t.co/WzzV7fZx1e— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) December 23, 2024
“In the letter, Carr noted that the American people have largely lost trust in the national media — although most, according to polling data, still have much more positive views of their local media outlets,” the Daily Wire reported.
“Dear Mr. Iger, Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly,” Carr’s letter began, before pivoting to address ABC’s recent $15 million settlement — and an additional $1 million in attorney fees — with Trump.
“ABC’s own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public trust. For instance, ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to President Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million in attorney fees to settle a defamation case,” Carr stated in the note.
The defamation case sprung from a March broadcast of the network’s flagship Sunday morning show, “This Week,” when veteran anchor George Stephanopoulos said on a number of occasions that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll case. Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic strategist, had been warned against using the word “rape” prior to the broadcast, but did it anyway. Carr went on to suggest that by prioritizing Disney’s paid streaming services over content that might be made available to the local, and more trusted, affiliates, the company was only deepening the public’s mistrust.
“The fact that a massive trust divide has emerged between local news outlets and national programmers like ABC only increases the importance of retransmission consent revenues remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local news operations and content that serves their communities,” he continued.
The mainstream media has long abandoned any sort of pretense of being full of integrity and glorious purpose. Once upon a time if you were a reporter you were sort of looked at as a hero, a person dedicated to the pursuit of truth and justice. There were ethical standards and principles of conduct that ensured journalists did the right thing and didn’t lie to the public or attempt to sway them with to one side of a story or another, simply presenting the facts.
Now media outlets are nothing more than propaganda makers for the Democratic Party, force feeding one false narrative after another as a means of brainwashing those who consumer their news product. It’s time they were held accountable for this lack of integrity and it seems that’s the mission of the incoming administration.