#kcbs

Parker Molloy at The Present Age:

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testified before the Senate Commerce Committee today, and I need to tell you about it. This was his first appearance before Congress since he threatened ABC back in September over Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night monologue about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The hearing was contentious. Democrats accused Carr of turning the FCC into a censorship arm of the Trump administration. Carr, a Trump loyalist, insisted he was just doing his job. But the wildest moment came when Sen. Ben Ray Luján asked Carr a simple question: Is the FCC an independent agency? Carr said no. “Not an independent agency, formally speaking,” were his exact words.

Here’s where it gets absurd. The FCC’s own website, at that very moment, described the commission as “an independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress.” Within minutes of Carr’s answer, someone updated the website to remove the word “independent.” Sit with that for a second. A federal agency’s website was edited in real time during a congressional hearing to match what its chairman had just testified. When Sen. Luján asked Republican Commissioner Olivia Trusty whether that meant the website had been lying, she said she couldn’t speak to its contents. “I’ve not seen that,” she told him. Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, had a different answer. When asked if the FCC is independent, she said yes, and added: “We should be.”

[...]

The chilling effect is the point

At today’s hearing, Sen. Ed Markey brought up another case that didn’t get nearly as much national attention: KCBS, a radio station in San Francisco. Back in January, KCBS reported on an ICE raid, describing the types of vehicles agents were driving. The station was reporting information that had been released by the mayor, a local city council member, and a community group. Standard local journalism. Conservatives got upset. Carr accused the station of failing to operate in the public interest and opened an investigation. The station’s owner, Audacy, responded by demoting a well-regarded anchor and dialing back political coverage for months. Reporters were discouraged from pursuing political or controversial topics and encouraged to focus on human interest stories instead. Doug Sovern, a veteran political journalist at the station, was sidelined after the investigation was announced. He retired in April. “’Chilling effect’ does not begin to describe the neutering of our political coverage,” he said.

Markey confronted Carr with this at the hearing. “The station demoted the anchor who first read that news report over the air and pulled back on its political coverage,” Markey said. “You got what you wanted.” This is how it works. Carr doesn’t need to actually revoke anyone’s broadcast license. He just needs to threaten it. The threat is enough. Companies with billions of dollars in pending mergers that need FCC approval aren’t going to risk antagonizing the guy who can tank their deals. They’ll self-censor. They’ll punish their own journalists preemptively. The chilling effect is the point. As Gomez put it in September, when Carr first went after Kimmel: “The threat is the point.” Al Sikes, a Republican former FCC chairman who served under George H.W. Bush, called Carr’s approach “mobster” tactics. “What we’re seeing right now is new boundaries that are being set on the exercise of authority: punishing those that you don’t like and ensconcing those that you do.”

FCC Chair and MAGA henchman Brendan Carr admitted in front of the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday that the organization is no longer an independent government agency.

This is authoritarianism in action by the Trump Regime.

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Ok so class, take a seat and let me talk about BBQ, my favorite topic (next to F1, and hockey, and theatre, and movies…)

For brisket, I like the “correct” boxes, a nice thick slice, with a smoke ring and a fat cap and a pepper based rub. I like a light sauce on it, not too vinergary, not to sweet, just a nice, classic sauce. I will eat a brisket sandwich, and I like them with cheddar, onions, sauce, but I’ll always prefer to eat slices by hand.

Ribs on the other hand, I love them sauced to hell and back and super sweet! Even in the south, I want my ribs sugary as shit. I want the ribs fat and juicy and dripping. I also prefer baby backs, instead of spare or St. Louis, which makes me an oddball.

KCBS News Los Angeles

USA March 29th 1985

Juan Carlos Lara at KQED:

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating San Francisco-based KCBS for its coverage of immigration enforcement actions in San José last month, sparking concerns from press freedom advocates and drawing right-wing backlash to the radio station. In an interview on Fox News, Trump-appointed commission chair Brendan Carr said he opened the investigation after KCBS shared the live locations and vehicle descriptions of immigration officials on Jan. 26. “We have sent a letter of inquiry, a formal investigation into that matter, and they have just a matter of days left to respond to that inquiry and explain how this could possibly be consistent with their public interest obligations,” Carr said. First Amendment advocates worry the FCC investigation will have a chilling effect on news organizations reporting on the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans. “Law enforcement operations, immigration or otherwise, are matters of public interest,” said David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition. “People generally have the right to report this on social media and in print and so on. So it’s very troubling because it’s possible the FCC is potentially being weaponized to crack down on reporting that the administration simply just doesn’t like.” Loy worried that the move could deter other news organizations from pursuing reporting critical of the Trump administration. “It’s an intimidating exercise. The process is the punishment,” Loy said. “Even if charges are never filed, people have to look over their shoulder to wonder, is the government going to come after me because I report something that the government doesn’t like me to say?”

[...] Last year, Carr criticized his own commission for voting to approve part of Audacy’s bankruptcy reorganization plan that would involve the investment firm founded by billionaire George Soros, a donor to liberal causes and a lightning rod for the right wing. Soros Fund Management bought much of Audacy’s debt during the reorganization process, Bloomberg reported. This drew the ire of Carr and other conservatives, and Carr vowed to take another look at that decision after being tapped by Trump to lead the FCC. The clashes with KCBS and its parent company are only the latest confrontations between President Trump’s FCC and media organizations.