Former FCC Commissioner Wheeler on Trump Attacking Media
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Fortum presents Olavi Vaari playing his favorite instrument.
Hmm, beautiful. But let's add a little energy.
Meissä kaikissa on sitä pohjoismaista energiaa. Rohkeutta tarttua toimeen ja sisua kehittyä. Mihin ikinä ryhdytkään, Fortum tuo energiaa ja osaamista arkeesi. Fortum.
Fire Carr, the censorship czar. Fire Carr, the censorship czar. Fire Carr, the censorship czar.
Did you hear those protests during the FCC open meeting this week? The protesters were saying, Fire Carr, the censorship czar. Fire Carr, the censorship czar. They're referring to the current chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, who has been someone who's been trying to rip to shreds the First Amendment and someone who's been utilizing his position at the FCC to threaten and, in my opinion, extort and go after comedians, television hosts that don't say nice things about Donald Trump or who don't do the state regime propaganda. I want to talk about what went down at that hearing where he was protested, and I want to get the expertise of someone who I think you absolutely need to hear from, the former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission who was appointed by former President Obama in 2013, former Commissioner Tom Wheeler, because he has an incredible perspective, and I don't think you've ever heard in detail how
how the FCC should really be operating from someone who was a past commissioner. But what's important to talk about, I think, are two major developments. Number one, Commissioner Carr is going to be testifying in the coming weeks before the Senate Commerce Committee. He was just subpoenaed, and so he will have to answer questions about the shakedown of ABC and Disney, when he said, we'll do this the easy way or the hard way, like a mobster. You get rid of Jimmy Kimmel, we're going to do this the hard way. And specifically as it relates to shaking down the affiliate network owners like Nexstar and Sinclair, although Sinclair probably ideologically aligns with him as well. So that's a big development.
The other big development is what's being discussed at this open meeting and what is it that Brendan Carr is trying to push. I know there's so much news going on, but it's important that we focus on all of these things. So Carr is trying to change the ownership rules that would previously have precluded consolidation by like one company to basically own all of the affiliate stations. And now what they wanna do is consolidate ownership so that Trump's hand-picked right-wing oligarchs control all of the local stations across the country so they could all be speaking with one state regime MAGA voice. That's what we see in fascist countries. That's what we see going down here. So these modernization broadcast ownership rules...
are one of the main thing that the Trump regime wants to push, have his right wing oligarch friends own all of the local stations and then demand they push out Trump propaganda and claim that's in the quote, public interest, that the public interest is the Trump state regime MAGA agenda, a la Russia, North Korea, et cetera. So with that as background, why don't we bring in right now the former commissioner of of the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration. He left his post in 2017 during the first Trump administration. Let's bring in Commissioner Tom Wheeler. And now I wanna bring in the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the 31st chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,
Tom Wheeler, appointed by former President Obama in 2013, left during the first Trump administration. It's great to see you, Tom. A lot of people have questions, and I really want to get into what's going on in the FCC now, because I believe that what happened with Jimmy Kimmel was really just the first step. There's a broader issue here with these ownership rules. And with everything that's happening now with government shutdown, with the daily chaos of what's happening in the Trump administration, I don't think people are focused a lot on these ownership rules, the consolidation behind the scenes.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–5:10
2
What happened at the FCC open meeting that led to protesters chanting 'Fire Carr'?
5:10–9:58
3
How did Brendan Carr allegedly pressure broadcasters after the Jimmy Kimmel incident?
9:58–22:29
4
What ownership rule changes is Chairman Carr proposing at the FCC meeting?
22:29–23:13
5
How could proposed consolidation let right‑wing owners control local TV stations?
23:13–23:49