Top official exposes Trump’s 'coordinated campaign of censorship and control'

There has been an ongoing battle pitting President Donald Trump and his FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on one side against ABC, its parent company Disney, late night host Jimmy Kimmel and the television show "The View" on the other. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, a prominent official at the FCC has revealed a “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” by the Trump administration.

According to a letter from Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, the FCC under Trump appointee Chairman Brendan Carr has been weaponized to force “a free and independent press and all media into submission.” Her assertion comes amid a wave of attacks and investigations by the White House against Disney and ABC that were launched in response to criticisms of the president by Kimmel and the hosts of the View. ABC has asserted that the administration’s efforts amount to an attack on free political speech, and Gomez argues that these investigations are “not a series of coincidental regulatory actions.”

Gomez is referring to several incidents past and ongoing, dating back to an FCC decision to reinstate a complaint into ABC’s moderating of a 2024 debate between then-candidate Trump and opponent Kamala Harris. Currently, the FCC is considering the removal of certain exemptions that "The View" is granted as a news program, investigating whether Disney has engaged in diversity and inclusion initiatives that counter the administration’s anti-DEI ethos and threatening the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates in response to criticisms from Kimmel.

“The goal was clear,” wrote Gomez. “Use regulatory pressure to force his removal from the air and send a message to every other broadcaster about the cost of critical coverage.” She says that while the administration is unlikely to succeed in its latest legal ventures, “The threat is the point. As sitting Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch recently reminded us by invoking Justice Thurgood Marshall: ‘The value of a sword of Damocles is that it hangs, not that it drops.’”

As the Wall Street Journal notes, while Gomez has been an outspoken critic of Carr, “it is highly unusual for a government regulator to tell a company under investigation that the probe is without merit.”

The administration’s attacks, says Gomez, first began in earnest with a defamation lawsuit against the ABC and Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos that was settled for $16 million. “That settlement did not buy you peace,” Gomez wrote, explaining, “you cannot buy this Administration’s favor. For the right price, you can only borrow it. And the price always goes up.”

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