FCC Chair Brendan Carr during a congressional hearing in Washington, DC, in January.Aaron Schwartz/AP
Amid surging oil prices and an unpopular war of choice in Iran, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is threatening not to renew the licenses of broadcasters for “running hoaxes and news distortions.” The Saturday post from Carr on X is not subtle: It explicitly warns broadcasters that they “have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up.”
Carr’s missive came in response to a Truth Social post on Saturday from President Donald Trump, which the FCC chair included in full as a screenshot. The post from Trump focused on coverage of the war in Iran by outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, along with “other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media.” (Unlike networks such as ABC and NBC, which broadcast over public airwaves, newspapers do not have licenses that the FCC can go after.)
The broader context is clear: Trump and senior administration figures are trying to coerce independent news outlets into parroting the government line. The effort comes as poll numbers show most Americans do not approve of the war in Iran and oil prices top $100 per barrel.
Trump’s Truth Social post fixated on a short update from the Wall Street Journal reporting that five refueling planes had been damaged in recent days during an Iranian strike against an air base in Saudi Arabia. The more fundamental issue is that Trump seems to recognize that he is now stuck in a poorly planned and unnecessary war of his own choosing that has upended the global economy. Rather than admit that, Trump administration officials—in a classic authoritarian move—are trying to use state power to get news outlets to obscure their incompetence.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not been subtle about that. During a Friday news conference focused on the war in Iran, Hegseth said that he was looking forward to CNN being taken over by David Ellison, the son of the Trump-supporting Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is worth roughly $200 billion.
One day later, Carr tried to subvert the editorial independence of broadcasters. Nor is it the first time Carr has tried to do so. Last year, Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was “indefinitely” pulled off the air after the FCC chair threatened to target ABC. Kimmel only returned to the air following a massive backlash.
With the likely takeover of CNN by Ellison, who installed Bari Weiss at the top of CBS News after purchasing the network last year, the administration is pursuing what may prove to be a more effective track. Instead of trying to coerce outlets, it is working to put friendly billionaires in charge. From there, the oligarchs can do the administration’s bidding without even being told.