The incoming chair of the Federal Communications Commission reportedly has accused ABC News of contributing to the "erosion in public trust" of the mainstream media.
Brendan Carr, a Trump-appointed commissioner who will become chair next month, sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger about the Disney-owned ABC network’s negotiations with its affiliated stations across the U.S., CNN reported.
"Dear Mr. Iger, Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly," Carr began his letter.
"ABC’s own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public trust. For instance, ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to President [Donald] Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million in attorney fees to settle a defamation case."
Carr was referencing the ABC News agreement to give $15 million to Trump's presidential library to settle a lawsuit over comments that anchor George Stephanopoulos made on air involving the civil case brought against the president-elect by writer E. Jean Carroll, according to a court document filed Dec. 14.
The lawsuit, filed on March 19 in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, accused Stephanopoulos of making the statements with malice and a disregard for the truth. The anchor incorrectly said Trump was found civilly liable for “rape.”
In his letter to Iger, Carr also stressed the importance of local news media outlets informing the public.
"The fact that a massive trust divide has emerged between local news outlets and national programmers like ABC only increases the importance of retransmission consent revenues remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local news operations and content that serves their communities," Carr wrote.
The FCC is responsible for managing television station licenses, and renewals rarely are contested and essentially never denied. The commission also retransmission consent, whereby cable distributors pay local stations for the right to retransmit their signals.
Carr ended his letter by saying he will be "monitoring the outcome" of the ABC retransmission negotiations "to ensure that those negotiations enable local broadcast TV stations to meet their federal obligations and serve the needs of their local communities."
Last month, Carr wrote to the CEOs of Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet demanding that they fess up about their censorship activities targeting conservatives. He asked the Big Tech companies to detail how advertising agencies they work with left-wing media monitors such as NewsGuard.
Reuters reported to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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