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Trump Moves To Have Final Say On All FCC Decision-Making

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
Per Inside Radio, the Trump administration wants greater supervision of agency policy decisions.

www.insideradio.com

Trump Moves To Have Final Say On All FCC Decision-Making.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has closer ties to the White House than any of his modern-era predecessors. But the Federal Communications Commission will be under even tighter control under an
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

"...the Federal Communications Commission will be under even tighter control by Trump under an executive order signed by the President, which says independent executive agencies, including the FCC, will be under more presidential “supervision and control.” That includes a requirement that the FCC submit all draft regulatory actions for approval before they are made official with publication in the Federal Register."

And among the reactions is this: "Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron says Trump’s executive order is a “blatant abuse of executive power” and Congress created the independent federal agencies so that they would be free from undue interference and influence by any single administration or political party."
 
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DavidEduardo said:
Per Inside Radio, the Trump administration wants greater supervision of agency policy decisions.

www.insideradio.com

Trump Moves To Have Final Say On All FCC Decision-Making.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has closer ties to the White House than any of his modern-era predecessors. But the Federal Communications Commission will be under even tighter control under an
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

"...the Federal Communications Commission will be under even tighter control by Trump under an executive order signed by the President, which says independent executive agencies, including the FCC, will be under more presidential “supervision and control.” That includes a requirement that the FCC submit all draft regulatory actions for approval before they are made official with publication in the Federal Register."

And among the reactions is this: "Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron says Trump’s executive order is a “blatant abuse of executive power” and Congress created the independent federal agencies so that they would be free from undue interference and influence by any single administration or political party."
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Republicans in congress will probably say nothing, although Trump is clearly usurping legislative authority. He probably assumes the federalists in the courts will let him get away with it. Independent regulatory agencies were created and set-up precisely to be free of this kind of political interference. Included in this group are the Federal Reserve, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and, of course, the FCC. Oh, yes, it also includes Amtrak. Maybe Trump thinks he can make the trains run on time.
 
Jean Luc said:
Republicans in congress will probably say nothing, although Trump is clearly usurping legislative authority.
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Or they’ll do the laughable dance of pretending to project that they are still relevant while abdicating all of their responsibilities for fear of reprisals.

Jean Luc said:
He probably assumes the federalists in the courts will let him get away with it.
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Safe assumption.
Jean Luc said:
Independent regulatory agencies were created and set-up precisely to be free of this kind of political interference. Included in this group are the Federal Reserve, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and, of course, the FCC.
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It was nice while it lasted.

Jean Luc said:
Oh, yes, it also includes Amtrak. Maybe Trump thinks he can make the trains run on time.
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A rousing success like the university. The airline. The mortgage business. The casinos. The steaks. The water. The magazine. The vodka…..
 
Jean Luc said:
Republicans in congress will probably say nothing, although Trump is clearly usurping legislative authority.
Click to expand...
At least it's to be expected, unlike the Democrats who are either too scared or go on social media to merely state the obvious.

If this is anything like the current mismanagement of the federal government thus far, it will wind up being yet another major failure that renders the FCC barely operable and yet another massive waste of time and money. Carr can't do anything if everyone else underneath him is fired in a botch job.
 
Nathan Obral said:
If this is anything like the current mismanagement of the federal government thus far, it will wind up being yet another major failure that renders the FCC barely operable and yet another massive waste of time and money. Carr can't do anything if everyone else underneath him is fired in a botch job.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that's the point. There are some agencies (CFPB for example) that the only thing for the new "director" to do is shut it down, but when it comes to more well-established agencies like the FCC, the idea is to wreck the agency in question. They WANT it to "barely operable." That way they can point at it and say "this agency needs to be privatized because government clearly doesn't work."
 
Don't be surprised if the entire UHF band gets sold off to mobile data providers. TV stations are declared "legacy media" and are forced to repack exclusively on VHF.
 
We're already discussing this story here:


This move has effectively changed the role of regulatory agencies into simply becoming tools of centralized presidential power. The antithesis of the intent of our system of government as outlined in the federalist papers. These agencies don't regulate, they prosecute. The question will be how the courts handle this. Because every one of these FCC investigations is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I asked earlier what would happen if a democrat FCC chairman did these things? He would be hauled into congress to testify. In fact, that's what DID happen the last time.
 
TheBigA said:
I asked earlier what would happen if a democrat FCC chairman did these things? He would be hauled into congress to testify. In fact, that's what DID happen the last time.
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Alternately, can you imagine if a Democratic President insisted that Fox News be stripped of their broadcast license because of unfavorable reporting on the activities of said President? The current President has, in the past, suggested doing just that to NBC, ABC, and CBS. His...assistant? Co-President? Attack dog? sent out a tweet demanding that the people behind 60 Minutes be given long prison sentences. For what crime? Apparently being critical of Dear Leader.

This is terrifying.
 
The next step was taken today with the senate approval of a new FBI director:

www.nbcnews.com

Live updates: Trump FBI pick Kash Patel confirmed by the Senate; Mitch McConnell announces retirement

Follow live updates as President Donald Trump's pick for FBI director Kash Patel receives his final Senate vote amid criticism from Sen. Dick Durbin and Democrats.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

The FCC doesn't need to do its own internal investigations. It can use the FBI to investigate certain media companies or personalities.

It happened before to Edward R. Murrow:

www.muckrock.com

Dissent and Disloyalty: The FBI’s obsessive inquiry into Edward R. Murrow

In the white heat of the Red Scare, journalists were often at the center of the unceasing national probe over patriotism. Over 700 pages of files on Edward R. Murrow detail the FBI’s intricate special inquiry into the legendary American newsman.
www.muckrock.com www.muckrock.com

gijn.org

The FBI’s Obsessive Inquiry Into Edward R. Murrow

During the height of the
gijn.org gijn.org
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
We're entering a dark time for broadcast news, to put it mildly.
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That began when the big three networks were bought by larger corporations (two with industrial roots and the other being a major movie studio) and began to be treated as profit centers. Inasmuch as CapCities were budget conscious when they owned ABC, they were still broadcasters at heart.
 
Nathan Obral said:
That began when the big three networks were bought by larger corporations (two with industrial roots and the other being a major movie studio) and began to be treated as profit centers. Inasmuch as CapCities were budget conscious when they owned ABC, they were still broadcasters at heart.
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NBC was started by industrial corporations: RCA, GE, AT&T, and Westinghouse. They were the equivalent of what the big tech companies are today,
 
Some of this Trump stuff I'll see to believe. While I'm entirely no fan of his, I think he does a lot of these theatrics for "spectacle" above all else. I expect little to actually change.
 
tall_guy1 said:
Some of this Trump stuff I'll see to believe. While I'm entirely no fan of his, I think he does a lot of these theatrics for "spectacle" above all else. I expect little to actually change.
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Perhaps you're right, but we are nonetheless in uncharted territory (for example: DOGE and the innumerable layoffs across many agencies and departments and virtually government-wide funding freezes, at least some of which have since been blocked), and because of that, it's hard to predict what will happen next.

But I agree that Trump is a master of hyperbole and expert grandstander, although much of what he's been doing lately is quite extreme, even for him, so we best not take it too lightly, lest we regret it later.

It's easy to, as @DavidEduardo put it, "awfulize" things, but it is nevertheless worthy of legitimate concern, and at this point, we have equal chances of it being better than it sounds, status quo (no meaningful changes), or actually as awful as we think it is. Only history will know what will happen next.

c
 
TheBigA said:
He now has given himself the power to do that. As indicated by this thread.

According to the EO, he decides what the law is, not congress or the courts.
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Well, he's attempting to give himself that power -- whether he will succeed is another matter.

I can see several ways that this plays out. One possibility is that when the FCC takes blatantly illegal actions against licensees at Trump's behest, some of those licensees fight back, take it to court, and win. In that scenario, Trump will not have the power he is trying to take.

Of course another possibility that looks equally likely is that licensees preemptively cave to Trump's whims in order to avoid costly legal fights. Or instead of going to court, they settle (as ABC recently did, and as CBS is rumored to be considering doing). In that case, legal or not, Trump effectively does have the power.

We don't know how this will play out yet.
 
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