Worries are continuing to escalate over a broad media crackdown after two separate “investigations” were launched by the Trump administration.
The war on free speech by the Trump administration has been well under way for some time now. Any speech that criticizes American Supreme Leader, Donald Trump, risks retaliatory action from the dictatorial leadership. In fact, it was only the other day we reported on core Trump supporting organization, The Heritage Foundation, moving forward with a plan to dox and expose Wikipedian’s for daring to post something they personally disagree with. This along with reports from last month of Jim Jordan and Elon Musk weaponizing the power of government to silence criticism.
Of course, the threats from Trump have gone to news organizations specifically for daring to publish something that hurts dear leaders fee-fees. During the previous election campaign, the Trump team threatened journalists with revoking their broadcast licenses and jailing reporters. This despite the media doing everything in their power to help Trump win the election.
In November, Trump issued a legal threat against the New York Times and Penguin Randomhouse for giving Trump the sads.
Other media organizations, for their part, were preemptively surrendering to the American overlord by blocking endorsements for Kamala Harris from their own writing staff. Specifically, that scandal enveloped both the LA Times and the Washington Post. This was followed up by Washington Post owner, Jeff Bezos, defending his censorial policies, a cartoonist quitting after getting censored by her own paper, the LA Times owner announcing that he would be personally reviewing headlines for the sake of keeping thin skinned Trump happy, and completely changing op-eds so as to appease dear leader Trump.
The overall message is clear: free speech is dead in America and any speech that criticizes Trump and his circle of sycophants will not be tolerated any more. This point was punctuated by a pair of unnerving stories. Late last month, the Trump administration, through FCC chair, Brendan Carr, launched a so-called “investigation” into NPR and PBS. From NPR:
President Trump’s new head of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS, with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Chairman Brendan Carr wrote on Wednesday to the presidents and chief executives of NPR and PBS, Katherine Maher and Paula A. Kerger, respectively. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”
The FCC does not directly regulate the two networks. Instead, it evaluates the actions of roughly 1,500 public broadcasting stations across the country, which hold licenses granted by the FCC for use of public airwaves for radio and television, even in the digital age.
Both CEOs rejected the claim that the public broadcasters had violated federal laws or practices that stretch back decades.
“PBS is proud of the noncommercial educational programming we provide to all Americans through our member stations,” Kerger said in a statement shared with NPR. “We work diligently to comply with the FCC’s underwriting regulations and welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that to the Commission.”
More recently, there was a separate “investigation” against a radio station for the crime of reporting the news. From TechDirt:
Sycophants do sycophantic things, that much is known. But the level to which newly-minted FCC chairman Brendan Carr has voluntarily debased himself purely to achieve his current station is extraordinary. We knew during the campaign season that Carr was eager to be America’s chief censor of any content the Dear Leader disliked. That the same Dear Leader deigned to refer to Carr as a “free speech warrior” could normally be described as double-speak, except that such a description would imply that Donald Trump has read 1984 at some point and I have a very hard time believing that to be true, save perhaps as an instruction manual. But the actions Carr has taken since his vulgar elevation to chairman are both unsurprising and so obviously counter to the concept of freedom of speech and serving the public as to be laughable.
But should you need to see the hypocrisy starkly in action, not to mention how the far-right propaganda machine plans to serve the administration, you need only read about how Carr’s FCC is threatening one of the oldest radio stations in the country for reporting the news too specifically.
Now, the whole live locations thing of ICE raids and agents? Yeah, that absolutely happened. It’s called, you know, news.
On the January 26 edition of “KCBS Radio Weekend News,” it revealed specific information about undercover ICE agents who were “carrying out an operation on the east side of town.”
“The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network, which is a community defense projecting system for immigrant communities against deportation threats, first report the activity on its platforms,” the host told listeners.
The “KCBS Radio Weekend News” host then revealed the specific make, color and model of several unmarked vehicles used in the operation. The station also revealed the exact locations of several ICE agents working in the area.
Let me see if I can summarize that while still clutching these pearls. Do you mean to tell me that a news radio station, in this year of our lord 2025, reported accurately on something that is absolutely of news value and included specifics that were observable by literally any member of the public? And that public information suddenly became worthy of a license inquiry simply by being broadcast over public airwaves?
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has already sent a formal Letter of Inquiry to the radio station as part of the FCC investigation. The Enforcement Bureau proceeding is inquiring whether the radio station–which is licensed to operate by the FCC–is violating the terms of their FCC license, which requires that they operate in the “public interest.” The formal Enforcement Bureau Letter notes that the ICE agents were operating at the time in an area known for violent gang activity.
Yeah, so the fuck what? I generally assume that law enforcement agents in large cities, including those at ICE, are regularly in locations where there is violent gang activity. That’s sort of the job, folks. And, again, how does that change that KCBS was reporting on the specifics identified by a third party of what is obviously a newsworthy story?
While these developments seem more minor than a full scale crackdown for the time being, that probably has to do with the fact that the Trump administration is a little busy destroying international trade relationships with other countries and orchestrating an unprecedented coup at home for the time being.
Still, developments like this have some on edge on where this will all lead. From TVInsider:
Is President Trump Going to Defund PBS?
PBS viewers are worried they could lose access to some of their favorite shows, including All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife, after President Donald Trump‘s new House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has taken aim at the publicly-funded broadcaster.
The news comes as the House, in association with Elon Musk‘s Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee, asked the leaders of PBS and NPR to testify next month to determine whether the networks should continue receiving public money.
According to Politico, DOGE Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene sent the request to the executives in a letter Monday morning (February 3). In her letter to PBS CEO Paula Kerge, Greene wrote that the subcommittee “is planning a hearing on federally funded radio and television, including its systemically biased content.”
Given all that has happened, the fears aren’t exactly unjustified. Federally funded news organizations would probably be the easiest organizations to target for the Trump administration since all they have to do is cut funding. Independently operated news organizations would be a bit trickier and require more firepower to take out, but that’s not something that is outside of the reach of Trumps micro hands.
If a broader crackdown on journalism takes place, a good question in all of this is where that would leave journalism. Would they have to more increasingly rely on safe havens offshore to continue to operate? Will there have to be stronger encrypted networks to pass information around? It’s really hard to say at this point. Still, the crackdown is already happening on journalism and it’s very possible that things could get worse from here on out. Scary times, indeed.
