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The FCC imposes religion, DEI removal, and some observations [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-25
The pattern of attacks on the freedom of speech are everywhere. You can't say anything online without getting attacked by MAGA trolls. You can't even talk anymore about DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. You can't talk about climate change because the Trump Administration believes it's a hoax. You can't attack right wing zealots because that's a violation of the First Amendment. And you can't talk about religion, unless it's their religion.
So, it should come as no surprise, that the Federal Communications Commission has decided to step into the fray in an area that should be reserved to decisions by the Supreme Court.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's letter to Alphabet, parent of Google, and Google, parent of YouTube, is coached in logic with background legalese citing sections of the Communications Act of 1934, amended in 1996.
Here's the actual letter:
If compression is too much to be readable, it is available on Carr's X account.
This is the avatar picture for Carr on his official FCC X account. This is the guy that can control everything you can see and hear except for print media.
Carr's avatar picture on his FCC X account.
This is the diary I did on it with links to all my stories on Carr.
Apparently I wasn't the first to notice it. Brendan Carr pinned a Hollywood Reporter redo on his avatar like he was proud of it and didn't care.
The really first important paragraph is:
"But in the case of YouTube TV, concerns have been raised alleging that your company has a policy (secret or otherwise) that discriminates against faith-based programming. As an example, Great American Media wrote a letter to me in which they claim that YouTube TV deliberately marginalizes faith-based and family-friendly content."
"Secret or otherwise." YouTube is in trouble now.
Then he goes on to say that GAM is the second fastest growing cable channel and Comcast, Cox, hulu, Fubotv and DirecTV stream all carry it, but YouTube TV does not. So, business decisions are okay when it involves friendlies to Trump, but somebody else can't make a business decision because then it's discrimination.
"Importantly, these allegations of faith-based discrimination come at a time when American public discourse has experienced an unprecedented surge in censorship."
Talk about making stuff up. It's only the right wing agenda media talking about censorship under the Biden administration. What Brendan Carr is doing is exactly what he said he'd do in Project 2025. Here's a summary of it on a web page that is easier to read then the PDF of the section.
Here's the full PDF of the FCC section.
Censorship flows through Project 2025 all over the sections making up the 900 page document. That's how and why they're erasing everything on government websites dealing with DEI and climate change.
But because censorship is immediately bad, especially keeping right wing hate speech off of social media, when somebody decides not to carry a product because they don't see money in it, all of a sudden it's illegal. It can also be that they just don't want to pay the carriage fees. That's how cable and streaming works. So the FCC is trying to get directly into how a business operates and direct how it should be run under the guise of combating censorship.
"Accordingly, in order to help inform my consideration of these issues, I requesting you inform FCC staff on the role of virtual MVPD's (Multi-channel Video Distributors) in the modern media marketplace and YouTube TV's carriage negotiation process, including the potential role of viewpoint-based discrimination."
Carr is already letting YouTube know that he's the judge, jury, and executioner, and he's already come to a decision. They just have to go through the process of dealing with it, before they're told that if they don't carry Great American Media he'll find something to do against them. He's talking about discrimination, not having to offer time for different political viewpoints. It looks like the new FCC is going to make up new territory for its purview. Not sure it's legal at all, but Carr is taking a swipe at it that he makes sound legal.
Great American Media does have programming on YouTube, with a Pure Flix channel with 275,000 subscribers and the Great American Family channel has 100,000 subscribers. Just not on YouTube TV.
Carr has long claimed social media platforms have engaged in discrimination against conservative voices. If there is any action on Section 230, tech companies are likely to challenge FCC authority. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, recently wrote, "Only Congress can change the law that gave us the internet as we know it today."
She's wrong. It changed Jan.2nd when the Sixth Circuit struck down the net neutrality rules which made the internet work at full speed for everyone. Now it's changed to a pay as you go operation that ISPs sued to get. You just haven't seen it in your internet pricing yet. It's coming.
The very first sentence of Brendan Carr's letter to Alphabet and Google's CEOs reads, "I am writing because concerns have been raised with the FCC that YouTube TV discriminates against faith-based programming." Because they don't have a something like a "terms of service" regarding it, he wants to find out what their internal practices are so he can force them to carry Great American Media.
The GAM website is minimally setup. Doesn't look like much until you go to the newsroom where go see all the programming. Otherwise it looks like small potatoes and Carr is bullying YouTube to get them more money to pay the bills. If he wins here, next he'll go after Amazon Prime.
Sure, YouTube and Amazon could easily afford it, but then Carr will go after all the streaming services. Next would be Peacock. Then Paramount+, AppleTV, MAX, Roku, and all the rest.
Then the crusade will turn to conservative programming. Get Newsmax and OAN back on Comcast cable and streaming so they can expand their programming and influence. That will spur new channels to be created. And the cycle will continue.
Going after faith-based programming is easy. Nobody doesn't like religion, except for those godless Democrats and liberals. Why, atheists, they're not even human beings. It literally would be like the witch hunts Trump and the Republicans accuse others of doing.
It starts with a letter. Next is a briefing. Then there's an inquiry. A hearing is scheduled. Testify before Congress. New laws are passed. Enforcement of said laws.
Discrimination for me, but not for thee. This is how it starts.
But it doesn't end with religion. Anti-DEI is another method to control media. Since DEI has been executive ordered out of existence, anyone caught using it is subject to government scrutiny now, and observation into the future to make sure they never do it again.
Guess what happens now when two communication companies want to merge?
In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, Brendan Carr said: "If there's businesses out there that are still promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination, I don't really see a path forward where the FCC could reach the conclusion that approving the transaction could be in the public interest."
Carr says this as Paramount Global wants to merge with Skydance Media, and Verizon with Frontier Communications. He actually called these deals in doubt because of DEI policies. T-Mobile wants to buy US Cellular wireless operations and spectrum assets.
"We can only under the statute move forward and approve a transaction if we find that doing so serves the public interest," Carr said.
"Public interest." This has been the basis for radio and television stations to keep their broadcast licenses. They keep them when they continue to serve the public interest. It was used to create the Fairness Doctrine and then the Equal Time Rule. Now it is a weapon.
Brendan Carr wrote the 15 page section on the FCC in Project 2025 (PDF). The crusade against DEI was in Project 2025, but Carr didn't think of using it then. It's now being used as a cudgel wherever it can be. Against commercial enterprises, law firms, any business in the United States at all. If you have to deal with a government in any way, you're forced to get rid of it. Anybody that receives government money has to get rid of it. If you want the General Services Administration to buy your product you won't get the contract if you have DEI programs.
Carr has not yet figured out a way to go after MSNBC specifically, owned by Comcast. Comcast also owns NBC and their stations could be targets because NBC must have DEI programs and suddenly they may not be serving the "public interest." Trump went after MSNBC last week, calling their critical reporting of him, "illegal." In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said that CNN and MSNBC are, "going to be turned off." Sort of claiming it happening because of ratings, but actually meaning it as an unspoken order.
Carr is also criticizing CBS for having done that 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris for supposedly editing between questions and answers were done not to Trump's satisfaction. Trump himself still has his $10 billion lawsuit against them for this. Carr is quite happy to jump onto the bandwagon.
ABC, of course, already capitulated with paying Trump $25 million that was supposed to go to his Presidential Library, which will never exist because he'll pocket every penny of it. But, Trump will find that that's not enough. Not when it was ABC's moderators in the presidential debates that fact checked him.
Anyone who crosses him will always be attacked. There is no point to capitulating. Trump will still get his revenge.
In February, Carr sent a letter to Comcast (PDF) regarding Comcast and NBCUniversal's promotion of DEI. If you're pushing DEI, you're racist, and that is not in the public interest. Watch out for an investigation. Maybe by Congress. Maybe the FBI will help. Then put Comcast officials in the hotseat like Republicans did with the university presidents over the Palestinian protests.
Look for Carr to go after social media companies next for not allowing enough conservative opinion to take over their platforms. There must be censorship involved he will say. He will try to get Section 230 of the Communications Act neutered so that social media companies are liable for what they put on their platforms. So, when they don't show favoritism for conservative and right-wing views, that must be censorship. Moderating what is put on the platform will no longer be allowed.
Net neutrality has already been thrown out the window. The principle of equal access is gone. Pay as you go. Brendan Carr will try to remake the internet in Trump's image. Scary thought, isn't it?
Trump has already taken over the Kennedy center. One of the pieces of the authoritarian playbook is controlling the arts. Controlling the media that presents it is the other half.
Suddenly, it will become against the law to cover certain subjects in movies and television, regardless of the method of transmitting. Anything that shows LBGTQ+ subjects will be banned. It'll be the Hitler playbook all over again. Hitler banned degenerate art, and burned books that didn't fit in with his philosophy. Trump and his minions have complete control of all the government levers needed to do this censorship and redirection of entertainment material.
What? You thought it was your First Amendment in the Constitution? Even the First Amendment is not beyond Trump's reach. Not if the Supreme Court capitulates on all the unconstitutional laws or attempts to circumvent the laws that the Trump administration is already trying to do.
Anti-DEI has been so successful. It didn't need a law passed by Congress. All it took was an executive order to outlaw it by royal proclamation. Look at the upheaval it has caused in the military, higher education, corporations, law firms and more. Some scholars think there's something in the First Amendment that makes this anti-DEI crusade illegal. There are 11 cases at the moment against the Trump administration regarding DEI. I wish them luck. With the tables turned where DEI means discrimination, how will a court find different? How do you deal with civil rights being defined as for whites only?
As for Trump's personal revenge, he wants to make it easier to sue for defamation and libel. This will allow him to attack all the newspapers, TV news networks, individual shows, and reporters. It won't just be fake news, it'll be Trump news.
Control the information, how it gets to people, and manage the content. MAGA has been force fed by Trump for a decade. Some of them have gotten a clue, but not enough.
The rest of adults have figured out how dangerous Trump is and will never fall into his propaganda machine. But what about the children? How do we keep them from being indoctrinated when the control of education is taken away from parents under the guise of giving it to them?
Let me tell you a story about indoctrination. I was sitting in a classroom when a teacher came in all a-flutter and talked to our teacher who then let us know that President Kennedy had been shot. From the back of the classroom a girl squealed, "Yay! Now we'll have a Republican president!" I kid you not. Her parents had done that programming. I decided right then and there that I was always going to think for myself. Listen, but always consider the source, check things out, avoid rumors and spreading them.
I'm too old to be reprogrammed. I was surprised how many elderly still voted for Trump. Trump promised he would never touch Social Security, but Elon thinks it's a Ponzi scheme, and Trump and Elon will never need it, so it gets put on the chopping block, too.
After all this doom and gloom of the last two months, there's a new feeling that hope is not lost. 83 year old Bernie Sanders and AOC are on a revival tent tour stirring up a lot of ruckus. Huge crowds wherever they go. Donald must know about them because he watches MSNBC a lot. Maybe he'll start getting scared of an uprising against him. But will it make a difference?
After watching a panel discussion on Ayman, I am less sure than ever that Trump is actually in charge. I'm not talking just about Elon. I'm talking about other technocrats and cryptomagnates behind the scenes. Without starting a conspiracy rumor, what about Peter Thiel? Shoveled the money in to get JD Vance elected Senator in Ohio, and then out of nowhere, get's picked for VP. These are the types of money behind the scenes.
Sum it up. Religion, and the FCC shoving it down YouTube's throat might just work. Anti-DEI is new weapon, the likes of which we've never seen before. Everything withers in it's path.
Capitulating doesn't work anymore. You will still get attacked. Paul, Weiss is going to find that agreeing to ridiculous terms gets you nothing. Trump will keep coming back for more.
Trump and company are going to find people opening up their windows, sticking their heads out, like Peter Finch in Network, and yelling, "I'm mad as hell! And I'm not going to take it anymore!"
It's going to be glorious to watch.
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[1] Url:
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