Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr endlessly pays empty lip service to the “public interest” and the “value of broadcasting integrity” as he engages in ham-fisted censorship of comedians and journalists the president doesn’t like. Or the illegal dismantling of media consolidation limits. Or helps the president and his friends steal TikTok.
But any time there’s an actual threat to broadcasting integrity or the public interest he’s unsurprisingly nowhere to be found. Like last week when his FCC rubber stamped heavy Saudi and Chinese investment in the Paramount merger despite obvious foreign influence concerns.
Or this week, when his FCC sat on its hands as the Trump administration used $20 million in taxpayer dollars to air rank propaganda ahead of the midterms across major broadcast networks.
A new set of rehashed ads feature Donald in black and white as he walks down a hallway promising to smite all of his enemies, including “the deep state,” “warmongers,” the “fake news media,” “Marxists,” and “fascists.” A notice at the bottom of the ad states it was “paid for by the US government.”
A previous version of the ad was funded by Trump’s campaign committee, not the US government. The ad violates laws restricting the use of taxpayer money for domestic propaganda (you can tell we’ve really been enforcing that one) — and the Hatch Act (ditto), correctly notes a complaint to the FTC, FCC, Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Office of Special Counsel (OSC):
“Under federal communications law, broadcast stations are strictly prohibited from censoring or rejecting ads sponsored by legally qualified political candidates. Even if a candidate’s ad
contains graphic imagery or disputed claims, stations generally must air it. But there are clear
exceptions to this rule.Broadcasters may be held liable for airing any advertisement that is in violation of federal law. Federal law explicitly prohibits using appropriated public funds for government propaganda, self-aggrandizement, or partisan political advertising. Yet, that is exactly the nature of Trump’s recent campaign ads that began airing on September 23, 2026. Furthermore, Donald Trump is not a candidate for any elective office. The FCC and broadcasters are not constrained by the special rule protecting candidate advertisements.”
According to Public Citizen, the ad ran during NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Fox News Sunday, and several college and NFL football games this past weekend. While the Trump administration is trying to dodge the law by falsely claiming the ad is a “public service announcement,” it doesn’t actively promote any real programs or services, making it a very clear violation of existing law.
In addition to Public Citizen’s complaints, Senate Democrats sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin this week stating that Trump is “illegally using Americans’ tax dollars to fund government propaganda and to put ads from his 2024 campaign back on the air.” It’s quite the waste of cash, given that associating yourself with a historically unpopular and corrupt president appears to be polling and political suicide this midterm season.
The Trump FCC will, of course, do nothing. Brendan Carr told the media that these are just “normal” “public service announcements” that “don’t raise any red flags.” He also insisted it’s fine because, he claimed falsely, the “left” does this all the time:
“Carr brushed off the concern, telling reporters that “there’s groups on the left that have, you know, long worked and pushed to weaponize the FCC’s license renewal process” but that the ads “don’t raise any red flags.”
Carr’s referring to a single event in 2023 when the volunteer-run Media and Democracy Project (MAD) petitioned the FCC to pull the license of a Fox Philly affiliate for repeatedly running lies about election fraud. What Carr leaves out is that while there was that one effort from “the left” to stop the renewal of a Fox license, at the same time there was an even bigger effort from a far right group to block the renewal of licenses for three CBS stations that aired an interview with Kamala Harris that the MAGA faithful deemed was edited to make Harris look good.
He also leaves out that his predecessor (the Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel) rejected all four of those requests, citing the First Amendment and pointed out that all such attempts to block license renewals for partisan reasons was an attack on free speech and a free press. Oh and he also leaves out that after he took over, he reinstated the efforts against the CBS affiliates, but not the Fox one.
In other words, only one side (Carr and his MAGA minions) appears to be engaged in partisan attempts to suppress speech.
Carr’s far more interested in dismantling all oversight of telecom monopolies, illegally dismantling media consolidation limits, trampling free speech, and forcing broadcasters to air discounted midterm ads. Broadcasters, meanwhile, are also unlikely to balk at running the ads, lest they want to face a fake Brendan Carr inquiry into “DEI” or some other, manufactured nonsense.
Another day in a corrupt autocracy run by the shittiest zealots imaginable.
