FCC chair Brendan Carr said broadcasters could lose their licenses if they do not “operate in the public interest,” reiterating President Donald Trump‘s criticism of media coverage of the Iran war.
“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 wrote on X Saturday as he reshared a post Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”
He continued, “And frankly, changing course is in their own business interests since trust in legacy media has now fallen to an all time low of just 9% and are ratings disasters. The American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation’s airwaves. It is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news.”
In Trump’s original post, he slammed “an intentionally misleading headline by the Fake News Media about the five tanker planes that were supposedly struck down at an Airport in Saudi Arabia, and of no further use.” The president wrote that “the planes were not ‘struck’ or ‘destroyed,’” adding “None were destroyed, or close to that, as the Fake News said in headlines.”
Trump said of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among “other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War,” that “their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts! They are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause the United States of America.”
However, the FCC does not have control over said papers. Instead, Carr and the commission have been outwardly critical of late night TV and, more recently, talk shows. In February, Carr said the FCC started enforcement proceedings that will look into The View‘s alleged violations of political equal time rules.
“When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong,” Carr concluded in his Saturday post. “It means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can’t allow that to happen.”
