The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Not if Brendan Carr has anything to say about it

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 on Thursday to get rid of a 22-year-old restriction that limits the reach of any one TV station owner to no more than 39 percent of U.S. households.

By getting rid of this restriction, the FCC is making it easy for more ruinous media mergers. Media mergers have run rampant the past ten years, from Television to gaming, only giving consumers the illusion of choice.

There are already detractors arguing that the agency is reaching far past its own statutory limits, and is ramping up to fight the decision in the courts.

The FCC ownership cap was set to 39 percent in 2004 thanks to an appropriations law, which argued, correctly, that no one broadcast company should be allowed to grow too powerful. However, FCC Chair and Project 2025 co-author Brenden Carr is arguing that the law didn’t prohibit future agency leaders from reconsidering the specific limit.

Carr thinks that the FCC has the right to toss the restriction for the benefit of the “financial well-being” of broadcasters. Clearly this guy doesn’t care about how monopolies affect the “financial well-being” of the workers who get laid off in the process.

Carr argues that the crowded media marketplace means that massive mergers are the ONLY way for affiliate TV stations to rival cable and streaming. I don’t know; to me it sounds like government funding could easily fix this issue.

“We should learn from our mistakes with the local newspaper industry, and we should not let the same thing happen to the local broadcast TV industry,” Carr said at Thursday’s open meeting. “Trusted sources of local reporting, broadcast over the public airwaves, are worth protecting and worth fighting for.” And by trusted, I think we all know he means these stations should be owned entirely by the wildly conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group. Or worse - the Ellisons.

Carr’s changes would establish a case-by-case review of mergers and would allow deals to exceed the 39 percent reach if the commission deems them to be in the public (Trump administration) interest. The agency already applies the public interest standard to merger reviews, so it isn’t clear what new “factors” Carr would weigh.

Hopefully they aren’t the same factors he used to threaten to pull ABC’s broadcasting license over a milquetoast joke by Jimmy Kimmel.

The chair’s oversight of broadcast media regulations has already attracted critics from both parties who accuse him of running afoul of the First Amendment by punishing TV networks that speak out against the Trump administration. Critics have warned that this case-by-case approach could open the door to arbitrary decision-making rooted in divisive politics.

Carr maintains that he applies the FCC rules impartially, but this sounds a lot more like government censorship.

Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez was the sole dissenting vote on the decision, arguing the change will allow a flood of consolidation which could hurt local news and raise cable prices for consumers.

“Congress set this cap in federal law and only Congress can change it. A handful of station group giants does not represent the wishes of local broadcasters,” Gomez said in a statement.

Reservations about Carr’s move are even riling up some senior Republicans in the agency. Like, do you know how wrong you have to be for TED CRUZ to criticize your power grab?

The vote is clearly a win for media giants Nexstar and Sinclair, both of which have bought Trump’s support via donations that feel more like bribes. Sinclair has already been in hot water over the obvious radicalization of the local news networks they own.