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The Federal Communications Commission, which allocates broadcast frequencies and licenses radio and televisions stations across the nation, is not generally known as an enforcement body. But Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr wants to change that. Last month, Carr announced an investigation into PBS and NPR, to determine whether plugs from underwriters are a form of prohibited advertising. More recently, the FCC opened an investigation into KCBS, a commercial radio station in San Francisco, for broadcasting the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out a raid.
That investigation is chilling; reporting on the activities of law enforcement is what journalists do. In an interview with Fox News, Carr noted that KCBS is owned by a broadcasting company in which George Sorosâa longtime bugbear of right-wing mediaâis a major investor, making transparent the political nature of his enforcement action.
Regardless, the FCCâs efforts are likely to be the opening salvo in a legal and regulatory onslaught targeting US media organizations that could intensify in the coming weeks, especially if Kash Patel is confirmed by the Senate as FBI director. âWeâre going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,â Patel told Steve Bannon in a December 2023 podcast interview.
The contours of the media assault are coming into focus. While building on strategies employed during the first Trump administration, they are likely to be more focused, concentrated, and effective.
For example, journalists from more mainstream or critical media outlets may be denied access to government spaces and information in favor of pro-Trump bloggers and influencers. This has already occurred at the White House and the Pentagon. Yesterday, the White House told the AP that its reporters would not be welcome unless the agency changed its style regarding the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump has dubbed the Gulf of America. Leak investigations into journalists and their sourcesâwhich Trump pushed for in his first term and which were thwarted or went unpursued by the Justice Departmentâwill likely go forward this time around.
News organizations from around the country are preparing for the possibility of legal action, including libel suits filed by Trump allies. But they also see regulatory threats ranging from tax audits to investigations into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Trump allies in Congress could use subpoenas to haul newsroom leaders in front of Congress, as was done with university presidents. Nonprofit news organizations worry about investigations targeting their donors.
Beat reporters have their own set of concerns. Those covering immigration, specifically those who appear Hispanic or Latino, worry they could get caught up in an enforcement action. In the case of green-card holders, this could jeopardize their path to citizenship. Transgender reporters, who have just started to make modest inroads into newsrooms, wonder how they can do their jobs when they are effectively being denied access to public spaces.
If the road map outlined in Project 2025 is any indication, funding for NPR and PBS could be on the chopping block very soon. Meanwhile, Voice of America, which is funded by Congress and broadcasts independent news and information to people around the world, could be brought under the control of the State Department. Some analysts point to Trumpâs efforts to maneuver loyalist Kari Lake into the director role as evidence that he intends to turn Voice of America into the Voice of Trump, and use it to set the agenda for pro-Trump media operating domestically. Others see that outcome as unlikely, noting that VOA has a strong culture of journalistic independence and legal safeguards in place.
The discourse that Trump supporters will employ to justify such actions is suggested by the assault on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). While the agency focused on humanitarian assistance, it also funded media development efforts through organizations like Internews, which provides financial and technical assistance to news organizations around the world. That organization has been singled out by the network of pro-Trump influencers online, who make the absurd claim that it is part of a global effort to censor and control the news under the guise of fighting disinformation.
Over the past several weeks, in my role as the founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at CUNYâs Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, Iâve been sounding the alarmâmost recently at the Lenfest Aspen Local News Summit, which took place last month in New Orleans. My message is that news organizations don’t have much time to prepare the best possible defense by assessing and understanding the risk, setting priorities, investing in legal defense, and strengthening the networks of smaller and nonprofit news organizations that will need to band together and share resources.
The collective goalâto quote Maria Ressaâmust be to hold the line, and doing so will be no small feat. Itâs made harder by the actions of major news organizations, from ABC and CBS to the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, which have made various accommodations with Trump. As First Amendment advocate Jameel Jaffer recently wrote in the New York Times, major news organizations should be leading the charge, not cowering or capitulating. âEach settlement weakens the democratic freedoms on which these media organizations depend,â Jaffer wrote.
Journalists and news organizations who may be despairing about their loss of influence and power need to come to terms with the new reality. It may be true that journalism is not going to save democracy or bring Trump down with some Watergate-like scandal. Yet independent journalism still mattersâit matters to history, to the culture, and to the audiences that depend on it to make sense of this moment. We owe it to them to fight for our rightsâand to win.
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