Tag

Brendan Carr

Articles and publications tagged Brendan Carr across the Atmosphere.

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Articles

Publications

TechdirtOct 13, 2026

Trump Bans CNN, Then Has DOJ Investigate CNN For Not Covering Him

Remember when Elon Musk told advertisers to go fuck themselves... and then sued them (unsuccessfully) for not advertising on his personal propaganda and manipulation site? Well, it appears that Donald Trump is trying a government-backed variation on that abusive power play: claiming that news networks choosing not to cover him after he announced he was...

1st amendmentantitrust

TechdirtOct 9, 2026

Cable Giants Ironically Plan To Sue FCC For Illegally Killing Media Ownership Limits

I've explored how Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr has been working tirelessly to illegally destroy what's left of already shaky U.S. media consolidation limits. He's particularly interested in helping Trump-friendly local broadcasters like Sinclair, Tegna, and Nexstar merge and dominate what's left of broadcast TV "news," as a very obvious reward for their loyalty to...

agitpropbrendan carr

TechdirtOct 5, 2026

Brendan Carr Is Making It Easier For Republicans To Harass You With Midterm AI Robocalls

Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr loves to insist he's being tough on robocalls, which have increasingly rendered U.S. voice communications networks less and less usable. Except whenever you actually dig into his plans, it usually involves making it easier for big companies and Republicans -- who often use the same tactics as outright scammers --...

brendan carrburners

TechdirtOct 2, 2026

Trump Breaks Law(s), Uses $20 Million In Taxpayer Money To Fund Midterm Propaganda

Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr endlessly pays empty lip service to the "public interest" and the "value of broadcasting integrity" as he engages in ham-fisted censorship of comedians and journalists the president doesn't like. Or the illegal dismantling of media consolidation limits. Or helps the president and his friends steal TikTok.But any time there's an...

advertisementsagitprop

Little Green FootballsOct 1, 2026

Kimmel: Threatened by FCC Chairman Robert De Niro, Trump Renames A.I. & Guillermo Dances to NY

Guillermo finally arrives in Brooklyn after another amazing night on Dancing with the Stars, Trump is boasting about his soon-to-be-failed attempt to rename A.I., and Jimmy’s monologue gets interrupted by the FCC Chairman (Robert De Niro).

Artificial IntelligenceBrendan Carr

TechdirtSep 28, 2026

Trump Orders The FCC To Punish A Reporter. Where Did All The ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Screamers Go?

Remember the Disinformation Governance Board? As we were quick to point out, this organization was named in the dumbest possible way by some incompetent people within the Biden administration, which only fed into the [ahem] disinformation around it. The program, a part of DHS, was an advisory group with no enforcement capabilities, and was tasked...

1st amendmentbari weiss

TechdirtSep 22, 2026

America Last: Trump FCC Rubber Stamps Major Saudi, Chinese Investment In Paramount Merger

There was a four year span where Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr simply couldn't stop hyperventilating about the fact that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, was Chinese. Carr would appear on cable news pretty much every week to endlessly rant about the potential propaganda, privacy, and NatSec impact of what was (at best) fairly murky Chinese...

brendan carrdisinformation

TechdirtSep 17, 2026

Brendan Carr Cries, Calls Jimmy Kimmel Censorship A ‘Hoax’

Last week comedian Jimmy Kimmel said Jimmy Kimmel Live! and ABC wouldn't be airing an interview with Texas Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico on broadcast because they were worried it would anger Trump's top censorship czar, FCC boss Brendan Carr. Kimmel and ABC had cause to worry; we've outlined in detail how Carr has manufactured...

brendan carrbroadcast

TechdirtSep 10, 2026

Jimmy Kimmel Won’t Air James Talarico Interview On ABC For Fear Of FCC Reprisal

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel‘s planned Thursday interview with Texas Senatorial hopeful James Talarico didn't air on ABC broadcast TV because network lawyers were worried about Trump FCC censorship and reprisal. Instead, the interview will air on the late-night show’s YouTube channel, Kimmel stated during his latest late night Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue: https://youtu.be/gIbSEScdV2o?si=6ExUtVCBUK8oAEX_&t=534 "You know, for...

brendan carrcensorship

TechdirtSep 2, 2026

GOP Begs Supreme Court To Let It Flood Airwaves With Cheap Midterm Propaganda

Back in June, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission that federal limits on coordinated expenditures by political parties violate the First Amendment, opening the floodgates to a much broader array of political ads funded via no limit of rich assholes and their preferred dark money groups. In...

adsappeal

TechdirtSep 1, 2026

Trump Demands FCC Punish Media Companies For His Sagging Polling

Our full-diapered mad king is at it again, this time urging FCC boss Brendan Carr to go after media companies for the crime of....simply pointing out his terrible, crashing polling numbers: Trump last week also posted a long, rambling screed on his personal propaganda website, vowing that NBC News‘ Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker...

1st amendmentbrendan carr

TechdirtAug 28, 2026

Republicans Stumble In Bid To Flood Midterm Airwaves With Discounted Ads

Back in June, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission that federal limits on coordinated expenditures by political parties violate the First Amendment. Which is every bit as stupid and corrupt as it sounds. Previously, under the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), political parties were subjected to strict...

advertisingairtime

TechdirtAug 21, 2026

Trump FCC Weakens U.S. Broadband Speed Goals To The Benefit Of Elon Musk And Comcast

I've spent the better part of a lifetime studying and writing about the way corrupted lawmakers and U.S. telecom giants work hand in hand to erode U.S. broadband standards and mapping so they can obscure the way corruption and monopoly result in limited broadband competition -- resulting in shitty, expensive, spotty, and slow U.S. internet...

brendan carrbroadband

TechdirtAug 20, 2026

FOIA Docs Show Brendan Carr Intimately Collaborated With White House, Right Wing Propaganda Orgs

Back in 2014 you might remember there was a giant, two-year, manufactured news cycle where Republicans pretended to be outraged that the then Obama White House had openly supported the FCC's efforts to impose some modest net neutrality rules (designed to protect consumers and competition from telecom monopoly abuse of power). At the time, major...

barack obamabrendan carr

TechdirtAug 19, 2026

Libraries Beg Brendan Carr To Back Off Plan To Make U.S. Broadband Shittier, More Expensive

Back in June, Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr announced he'd be reviewing the FCC E-Rate program with an eye on “reforms.” Generally, when Brendan Carr promises "reforms," usually what he means is either "I'm going to destroy this program," or "I'm going to illegally make changes to this congressionally-mandated program that ensures telecom giants like...

brendan carrbroadband

TechdirtAug 18, 2026

ABC Sues The FCC For Massive First Amendment Violations

After years of feckless capitulation, ABC is clearly developing something vaguely resembling a backbone. The company has filed a new lawsuit against Brendan Carr and the FCC (pdf), (correctly) claiming that the agency has been engaged in a coordinated campaign of harassment that violates the First Amendment and tramples the company's free speech rights. The...

brendan carrcensorship

TechdirtAug 12, 2026

Trump Rushes To Stock FCC With Personal Lackeys, Refuses To Seat Dem Commissioners

When Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr isn't trampling free speech or harassing major networks for platforming comedians, he's been illegally taking a hatchet to whatever's left of media consolidation rules and telecom consumer protection oversight.While he's been pretty effective at this, Carr would find it even easier to convene meetings and hold agency votes if...

anna gomezbrendan carr

TechdirtAug 7, 2026

Brendan Carr’s FCC Rewrites Media Ownership Law Only Congress Can Actually Change

There are many ways to describe the Trump Era, but the executive branch's conviction that it can simply ignore the legislative branch's entire existence has become something close to a governing principle. From impounding funds designated by Congress to launching a war without Congress's authority, Trump has basically decided that the legislative branch is a...

anna gomezbrendan carr

TechdirtJul 30, 2026

Trump Republicans Are Destroying Decades Of Policy Progress On Affordable Broadband

Quick background: the $8 billion FCC Universal Service Fund (USF) applies a small surcharge on traditional phone lines to fund broadband expansion to unserved rural homes, schools, and libraries (of which the U.S. has a lot thanks to rampant telecom monopolization). While the USF, like all government programs, hasn't been absent of fraud (usually at...

brendan carrbroadband

TechdirtJul 29, 2026

Former FCC Officials Line Up To Blast Brendan Carr’s Lawless Censorship Of ABC

A bipartisan roster of former top-level FCC officials have submitted a filing to the Trump FCC blasting the agency's ongoing violations of the First Amendment and urging it to terminate its phony "investigations" into ABC -- including the unprecedented early ownership review of the company's broadcast licenses. In the filing, former FCC officials allied under...

bipartisanbrendan carr

TechdirtJul 28, 2026

The Trump FCC’s Chinese Drone Ban Continues To Be A Sloppy, Protectionist Mess

Last year the Trump administration announced it would ban Chinese-made drones from the U.S. As I noted at the time, the plan had several problems, not least of which being the Trump administration is a racist, corrupt, dysfunctional mess filled with weirdos and lazy incompetents, primarily interested in assorted personal investment grifts and protecting less...

banbrendan carr

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