{"id":158070,"date":"2026-07-24T07:20:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/24\/brendan-carr-lobs-more-empty-threats-at-abc-for-not-airing-trumps-election-fraud-lies\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T07:20:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:20:45","slug":"brendan-carr-lobs-more-empty-threats-at-abc-for-not-airing-trumps-election-fraud-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/24\/brendan-carr-lobs-more-empty-threats-at-abc-for-not-airing-trumps-election-fraud-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Carr Lobs More Empty Threats At ABC For Not Airing Trump\u2019s Election Fraud Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year FCC boss Brendan Carr\u00a0launched a series of fake investigations into ABC<\/a>\u00a0because the network (1) hosted Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on\u00a0The View<\/em>, (2) aired comedians who made fun of the president and his wife, and (3) occasionally engaged in journalism critical of Trump corruption.<\/p>\n

The details of these investigations really don\u2019t matter at this point. We\u2019ve discussed how they\u2019re\u00a0legally incoherent<\/a>, clearly\u00a0violate the First Amendment<\/a>, and involve Carr\u00a0actively manufacturing false claims<\/a>\u00a0that ABC violated FCC rules it was long-exempt from. At other points it just involves Carr being incoherently racist on Trump\u2019s behalf; such as claims that ABC\u00a0didn\u2019t eliminate its \u201cDEI\u201d requirements quickly enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s now dumping additional empty threats into the mix, claiming that his ongoing review of ABC\u2019s local broadcast licenses will\u00a0take into consideration the network\u2019s refusal to air Trump\u2019s recent prime time speech<\/a>, which mostly just involved Trump spewing more false election fraud conspiracy theories surrounding his 2020 loss.<\/p>\n

ABC and NBC wisely refused to air the speech live, knowing that helping to spread distrust in election integrity in real time would be\u00a0the opposite of useful journalism<\/em>. That made Trump mad, so he\u2019s clearly urged Brendan Carr to\u00a0levy some additional empty threats against ABC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think when you have the President of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that\u2019s something that broadcasters should be carrying. And so, obviously, this is an issue,\u201d Carr told reporters Wednesday. \u201cThere have been lots of concerns raised, including by members of Congress, about whether broadcasters and their decisions there comply with the public interest.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Carr is somewhat vague here because he knows this is a bunch of bullshit.<\/p>\n

Obviously it\u2019s ABC\u2019s First Amendment right to determine what it broadcasts and when. Carr has absolutely zero legal role in determining the scheduling lineup of a private company. Carr\u2019s once again pretending that networks that refuse to pander to our mad idiot king will be subjected to FCC review of their public interest obligations affixed to ownership of public airwaves.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve mentioned countless times already, Carr\u00a0doesn\u2019t want any of this to actually head to court<\/em>\u00a0because he knows it\u2019s an absolute loser on First Amendment grounds. The real goal remains to threaten U.S. media companies with costly and annoying legal headaches if they challenge Republicans or the unpopular president. It\u2019s typical lazy autocrat stuff by weak men who are afraid of\u00a0words<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to ABC, that\u2019s still been embarrassingly effective. The company agreed to pay Trump\u00a0a $16 million bribe in 2024<\/a>\u00a0to settle a baseless lawsuit the company easily could have won. And more recently, ABC shows like\u00a0The View<\/em>\u00a0have\u00a0shied away from hosting any political candidates at all<\/a>\u00a0for risk of upsetting Trump.<\/p>\n

Brendan Carr has\u00a0openly stated in interviews<\/a>\u00a0he fancies himself a tough, pit bull enforcer; but as Trump\u2019s health and political power wane, the threats will hold less and less weight. As a result you\u2019ve already seen ABC execs start to show a backbone in their fight with Carr, openly pointing out how he colluded with local right wing broadcast affiliates to\u00a0manufacture evidence suggesting ABC broke FCC rules<\/a>\u00a0(something I\u2019m sure will play great in court).<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s threats will become weaker and weaker until he\u2019s ultimately booted from office by subsequent administrations, at which point he\u2019ll fail upward to some mid-six figure job at a telecom or media think tank, where he\u2019ll spend the rest of his life helping corporate America dismantle whatever\u2019s left of competition, labor, and consumer protection standards.<\/p>\n

One of the ironic things, for Carr, is that his authoritarian censorship and saber rattling often draws press and public attention away from\u00a0all the other terrible things he\u2019s doing<\/a>, whether it\u2019s destroying media consolidation limits, making life easier on robocallers, dismantling broadband consumer protection standards, or making it easier for giant shitty companies to run amok.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d like to think Carr ultimately faces some sort of meaningful accountability for being one of the most censorial, petty, captured, and authoritarian regulators in U.S. history, but I wouldn\u2019t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

Brendan Carr Lobs More Empty Threats At ABC For Not Airing Trump\u2019s Election Fraud Lies<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Careful What You Sue For: Trump\u2019s BBC Case Just Forced His Financial Records Into Discovery<\/a>
\u201cDigital Colonialism\u201d: U.S. Demands To Access Africans\u2019 Data Raise Privacy, Sovereignty Concerns<\/a>
ICE Illegally Scooped Up Medicaid Data, Then Shared It With Palantir<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Brendan Carr Lobs More Empty Threats At ABC For Not Airing Trump\u2019s Election Fraud Lies<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Earlier this year FCC boss Brendan Carr\u00a0launched a series of fake investigations into ABC<\/a>\u00a0because the network (1) hosted Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on\u00a0The View<\/em>, (2) aired comedians who made fun of the president and his wife, and (3) occasionally engaged in journalism critical of Trump corruption.<\/p>\n

The details of these investigations really don\u2019t matter at this point. We\u2019ve discussed how they\u2019re\u00a0legally incoherent<\/a>, clearly\u00a0violate the First Amendment<\/a>, and involve Carr\u00a0actively manufacturing false claims<\/a>\u00a0that ABC violated FCC rules it was long-exempt from. At other points it just involves Carr being incoherently racist on Trump\u2019s behalf; such as claims that ABC\u00a0didn\u2019t eliminate its \u201cDEI\u201d requirements quickly enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s now dumping additional empty threats into the mix, claiming that his ongoing review of ABC\u2019s local broadcast licenses will\u00a0take into consideration the network\u2019s refusal to air Trump\u2019s recent prime time speech<\/a>, which mostly just involved Trump spewing more false election fraud conspiracy theories surrounding his 2020 loss.<\/p>\n

ABC and NBC wisely refused to air the speech live, knowing that helping to spread distrust in election integrity in real time would be\u00a0the opposite of useful journalism<\/em>. That made Trump mad, so he\u2019s clearly urged Brendan Carr to\u00a0levy some additional empty threats against ABC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think when you have the President of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that\u2019s something that broadcasters should be carrying. And so, obviously, this is an issue,\u201d Carr told reporters Wednesday. \u201cThere have been lots of concerns raised, including by members of Congress, about whether broadcasters and their decisions there comply with the public interest.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Carr is somewhat vague here because he knows this is a bunch of bullshit.<\/p>\n

Obviously it\u2019s ABC\u2019s First Amendment right to determine what it broadcasts and when. Carr has absolutely zero legal role in determining the scheduling lineup of a private company. Carr\u2019s once again pretending that networks that refuse to pander to our mad idiot king will be subjected to FCC review of their public interest obligations affixed to ownership of public airwaves.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve mentioned countless times already, Carr\u00a0doesn\u2019t want any of this to actually head to court<\/em>\u00a0because he knows it\u2019s an absolute loser on First Amendment grounds. The real goal remains to threaten U.S. media companies with costly and annoying legal headaches if they challenge Republicans or the unpopular president. It\u2019s typical lazy autocrat stuff by weak men who are afraid of\u00a0words<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to ABC, that\u2019s still been embarrassingly effective. The company agreed to pay Trump\u00a0a $16 million bribe in 2024<\/a>\u00a0to settle a baseless lawsuit the company easily could have won. And more recently, ABC shows like\u00a0The View<\/em>\u00a0have\u00a0shied away from hosting any political candidates at all<\/a>\u00a0for risk of upsetting Trump.<\/p>\n

Brendan Carr has\u00a0openly stated in interviews<\/a>\u00a0he fancies himself a tough, pit bull enforcer; but as Trump\u2019s health and political power wane, the threats will hold less and less weight. As a result you\u2019ve already seen ABC execs start to show a backbone in their fight with Carr, openly pointing out how he colluded with local right wing broadcast affiliates to\u00a0manufacture evidence suggesting ABC broke FCC rules<\/a>\u00a0(something I\u2019m sure will play great in court).<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s threats will become weaker and weaker until he\u2019s ultimately booted from office by subsequent administrations, at which point he\u2019ll fail upward to some mid-six figure job at a telecom or media think tank, where he\u2019ll spend the rest of his life helping corporate America dismantle whatever\u2019s left of competition, labor, and consumer protection standards.<\/p>\n

One of the ironic things, for Carr, is that his authoritarian censorship and saber rattling often draws press and public attention away from\u00a0all the other terrible things he\u2019s doing<\/a>, whether it\u2019s destroying media consolidation limits, making life easier on robocallers, dismantling broadband consumer protection standards, or making it easier for giant shitty companies to run amok.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d like to think Carr ultimately faces some sort of meaningful accountability for being one of the most censorial, petty, captured, and authoritarian regulators in U.S. history, but I wouldn\u2019t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

Brendan Carr Lobs More Empty Threats At ABC For Not Airing Trump\u2019s Election Fraud Lies<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Careful What You Sue For: Trump\u2019s BBC Case Just Forced His Financial Records Into Discovery<\/a>
\u201cDigital Colonialism\u201d: U.S. Demands To Access Africans\u2019 Data Raise Privacy, Sovereignty Concerns<\/a>
ICE Illegally Scooped Up Medicaid Data, Then Shared It With Palantir<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year FCC boss Brendan Carr\u00a0launched a series of fake investigations into ABC\u00a0because the network (1) hosted Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on\u00a0The View, (2) aired comedians who made fun of the president and his wife, and (3) occasionally engaged in journalism critical of Trump corruption. The details of these investigations really don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":158071,"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-158070","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\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-583724674-w579Xb.jpg?fit=724%2C483&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158070","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=158070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}