President Donald J. Trump continues to shake Washington to its core, highlighting and reforming issues that have been on the
President Donald J. Trump continues to shake Washington to its core, highlighting and reforming issues that have been on the back burner for decades. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission led by Brendan Carr, Anna Gomez, and Olivia Trusty — is no exception, publicly raising the specter of abolishing the FCC’s national ownership cap.
For the media establishment, this is like touching the third rail. For generations, from Dan Rather to Jimmy Kimmel, Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of liberalism from the big three television channels.
Importantly, this applies only to the ownership of stations, not the ownership of programming. So while Disney owns ABC and can force Jimmy Kimmel into 100 percent of households, a single company can own only 39 percent of the local ABC affiliates he’s broadcast on.
This is important because the owners of those stations have emerged as an important check on left-wing misinformation. After Disney reinstated Kimmel, station owners Sinclair and Nexstar initially objected by refusing to broadcast his show. Yet fractured by their limited ownership shares, the far more powerful Disney ultimately got its way.
By abolishing the FCC’s ownership cap, the Trump administration can allow the opportunity for more right-leaning affiliate owners to become more influential.
