{"id":116501,"date":"2025-04-25T10:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/25\/fcc-boss-brendan-carr-whines-about-accurate-comcast-nbc-reporting-that-made-donald-trump-sad\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T10:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:03:06","slug":"fcc-boss-brendan-carr-whines-about-accurate-comcast-nbc-reporting-that-made-donald-trump-sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/25\/fcc-boss-brendan-carr-whines-about-accurate-comcast-nbc-reporting-that-made-donald-trump-sad\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Boss Brendan Carr Whines About Accurate Comcast\/NBC Reporting That Made Donald Trump Sad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s simply no limit of problems in telecom and media that competent FCC regulators\u00a0could<\/strong>\u00a0be taking aim at.\u00a0Broadband price gouging by monopolies<\/a>, widespread\u00a0telecom privacy and security failures<\/a>, the obvious harm of\u00a0unchecked media consolidation<\/a>\u00a0all come quickly to mind.<\/p>\n

Instead of tackling any of this, new Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr has spent the lion\u2019s share of his first months in office engaged in erratic authoritarian zealotry, whether it\u2019s abusing FCC authority to\u00a0harass journalists who refuse to kiss Donald Trump\u2019s ass<\/a>, or \u201cinvestigating\u201d Verizon, Comcast, and Disney\u00a0for not being racist enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Carr is again taking aim at Comcast, simply because journalists at MSNBC and NBC gave King Donald a sad.<\/p>\n

Over at the right wing propaganda website known as X, Carr whined about Comcast over MSNBC and NBC\u2019s coverage of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland dad the government\u00a0\u201caccidentally\u201d kidnapped, sent to a foreign gulag<\/a>, and now refuses to return to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

You\u2019ll notice Carr isn\u2019t actually launching any sort of actual \u201cinvestigation\u201d into Comcast here because the accusation is baseless bullshit.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence that Garcia was a gang member. Garcia\u2019s only arrest was in 2019 for\u00a0\u201cloitering\u201d in a Home Depot parking lot<\/a>. Carr is of course mad because NBC and MSNBC told people the truth: that the government fucked up, appear to have falsely and lazily identified a man as a gang member and dangerous career criminal, then \u201caccidentally\u201d shipped him off to a foreign work gulag.<\/p>\n

Even if Garcia\u00a0was<\/strong>\u00a0a gang member, Brendan Carr is behaving like a foolish clown. The rule he\u2019s trying to leverage here, the FCC\u2019s \u201cdistortion rule,\u201d is a very rarely enforced rule that says news outlets can\u2019t suppress important journalism or take cash bribes to modify journalism. It clearly doesn\u2019t apply if NBC and MSNBC were just explaining the situation accurately. And it\u00a0doesn\u2019t apply to cable news.<\/p>\n

Carr, of course, knows this, he\u2019s just hoping that a shitty U.S. press system will help him pretend he\u2019s launching a \u201cserious investigation,\u201d so the accusations get repeated across the media and other news outlets think twice\u00a0before criticizing Donald Trump<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t matter if NBC (or anybody else) is guilty, the press will dutifully parrot the accusation far and wide,\u00a0implying guilt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because U.S. consolidated corporate journalism is generally very shitty and concerned about losing access or costly fake investigations, it\u2019s an effective tactic.<\/p>\n

If you search\u00a0through the news wires<\/a>, most of the reporting on this story parrot Carr\u2019s claims without pointing out he doesn\u2019t have much of a leg to stand on. Or that the rule in question doesn\u2019t apply to cable. Or that Carr\u2019s primary goal is very clearly to bully media companies and suppress journalism, a curious choice for a party that spent the last few years babbling endlessly about\u00a0their love of free speech<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Again there will never be a case against Comcast here because this is thin bullshit and Carr has absolutely no leg to stand on. The whole point of the tweet was to get the press to parrot the false claims to a broader audience and to soften their criticism of the Trump administration. Most were happy to oblige.<\/p>\n

FCC Boss Brendan Carr Whines About Accurate Comcast\/NBC Reporting That Made Donald Trump Sad<\/a><\/p>\n

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Federal Prosecutor Fires Off Letter To Medical Journals Asking About Their Policies On \u2018Competing Viewpoints\u2019<\/a>
Elon Musk Pretends He\u2019s Leaving The Job He Supposedly Doesn\u2019t Have To Not Return To The Job He Supposedly Never Left<\/a>
Otherwise Objectionable: Can Section 230 Survive In An AI-Driven World?<\/a><\/p>\n

The post FCC Boss Brendan Carr Whines About Accurate Comcast\/NBC Reporting That Made Donald Trump Sad<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s simply no limit of problems in telecom and media that competent FCC regulators\u00a0could<\/strong>\u00a0be taking aim at.\u00a0Broadband price gouging by monopolies<\/a>, widespread\u00a0telecom privacy and security failures<\/a>, the obvious harm of\u00a0unchecked media consolidation<\/a>\u00a0all come quickly to mind.<\/p>\n

Instead of tackling any of this, new Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr has spent the lion\u2019s share of his first months in office engaged in erratic authoritarian zealotry, whether it\u2019s abusing FCC authority to\u00a0harass journalists who refuse to kiss Donald Trump\u2019s ass<\/a>, or \u201cinvestigating\u201d Verizon, Comcast, and Disney\u00a0for not being racist enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Carr is again taking aim at Comcast, simply because journalists at MSNBC and NBC gave King Donald a sad.<\/p>\n

Over at the right wing propaganda website known as X, Carr whined about Comcast over MSNBC and NBC\u2019s coverage of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland dad the government\u00a0\u201caccidentally\u201d kidnapped, sent to a foreign gulag<\/a>, and now refuses to return to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

You\u2019ll notice Carr isn\u2019t actually launching any sort of actual \u201cinvestigation\u201d into Comcast here because the accusation is baseless bullshit.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence that Garcia was a gang member. Garcia\u2019s only arrest was in 2019 for\u00a0\u201cloitering\u201d in a Home Depot parking lot<\/a>. Carr is of course mad because NBC and MSNBC told people the truth: that the government fucked up, appear to have falsely and lazily identified a man as a gang member and dangerous career criminal, then \u201caccidentally\u201d shipped him off to a foreign work gulag.<\/p>\n

Even if Garcia\u00a0was<\/strong>\u00a0a gang member, Brendan Carr is behaving like a foolish clown. The rule he\u2019s trying to leverage here, the FCC\u2019s \u201cdistortion rule,\u201d is a very rarely enforced rule that says news outlets can\u2019t suppress important journalism or take cash bribes to modify journalism. It clearly doesn\u2019t apply if NBC and MSNBC were just explaining the situation accurately. And it\u00a0doesn\u2019t apply to cable news.<\/p>\n

Carr, of course, knows this, he\u2019s just hoping that a shitty U.S. press system will help him pretend he\u2019s launching a \u201cserious investigation,\u201d so the accusations get repeated across the media and other news outlets think twice\u00a0before criticizing Donald Trump<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t matter if NBC (or anybody else) is guilty, the press will dutifully parrot the accusation far and wide,\u00a0implying guilt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because U.S. consolidated corporate journalism is generally very shitty and concerned about losing access or costly fake investigations, it\u2019s an effective tactic.<\/p>\n

If you search\u00a0through the news wires<\/a>, most of the reporting on this story parrot Carr\u2019s claims without pointing out he doesn\u2019t have much of a leg to stand on. Or that the rule in question doesn\u2019t apply to cable. Or that Carr\u2019s primary goal is very clearly to bully media companies and suppress journalism, a curious choice for a party that spent the last few years babbling endlessly about\u00a0their love of free speech<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Again there will never be a case against Comcast here because this is thin bullshit and Carr has absolutely no leg to stand on. The whole point of the tweet was to get the press to parrot the false claims to a broader audience and to soften their criticism of the Trump administration. Most were happy to oblige.<\/p>\n

FCC Boss Brendan Carr Whines About Accurate Comcast\/NBC Reporting That Made Donald Trump Sad<\/a><\/p>\n

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Federal Prosecutor Fires Off Letter To Medical Journals Asking About Their Policies On \u2018Competing Viewpoints\u2019<\/a>
Elon Musk Pretends He\u2019s Leaving The Job He Supposedly Doesn\u2019t Have To Not Return To The Job He Supposedly Never Left<\/a>
Otherwise Objectionable: Can Section 230 Survive In An AI-Driven World?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS\/AFP\/Getty Images) There\u2019s simply no limit of problems in telecom and media that competent FCC regulators\u00a0could\u00a0be taking aim at.\u00a0Broadband price gouging by monopolies, widespread\u00a0telecom privacy and security failures, the obvious harm of\u00a0unchecked media consolidation\u00a0all come quickly to mind. Instead of tackling any of this, new Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-21-070906-EjtEc7.png?fit=1024%2C751&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}