Panicking Trump proves he sees a real threat

The pattern is clear: Corporate billionaires who either own or are purchasing U.S. media are censoring content to support Donald Trump. Trump’s blatantly illegal carrot is the conditioning of federal contracts, mergers, licensing, tax and regulatory relief on partisan fealty. His stick? Threatening the FCC licenses of networks that criticize him.

In January, singling out left-leaning shows like Saturday Night Live, The View, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr resurrected a long dormant “equal time” policy to issue new regulatory guidance requiring these shows to give “equal time” to political candidates in an election period. The rule was originally adopted in 1934, but the shows Carr is now targeting had been subject to a “news” exemption since 1959.

Despite declaring that the new regulations apply to shows “motivated by partisan purposes,” Carr is not applying them to Fox News, a blended news and entertainment network that runs 24/7 Trump propaganda. Nor is he applying them to uber-partisan right-wing talk radio, which the FCC also regulates. Instead, Carr is focusing on what he calls “left-leaning” entertainment programming.

Selective application of federal communication rules based on partisan leanings obviously violates the First Amendment. While networks could sue the FCC on First Amendment and misuse of administrative authority grounds, whether the Roberts court would rule in time for it to matter is another question.

FCC targets Talarico

On Monday, after either the FCC or corporate-owned CBS threatened legal repercussions if Stephen Colbert aired an interview with James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate, the taped interview was removed from the show. Whether CBS was directed to pull the interview or bent the knee in advance has been the subject of debate, but it’s clear the Trump administration grew concerned about Talarico in particular after he appeared on The View in early February.

Talarico, a Texas state representative, is a deeply religious Democratic lawmaker making waves with MAGA’s religious hypocrisy. He looks like a southern Baptist preacher but he sounds like a true man of faith. Taking on Trump’s far-right base, Talarico rails about the shameful gulf between the teachings of Christ and the suffering Trump is inflicting throughout the country and around the world.

A Presbyterian seminarian, Talarico has gained national attention for using his theological background to criticize Chrisian nationalism, condemning it as a “betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth,” that “worships power in the name of Christ.”

Talarico: It’s time to start flipping tables

Talarico relies on the teachings of Christ to challenge corporate interests.

He identifies the right vs. left political divide in the U.S. as deliberately orchestrated, while the true divide is top wealth vs. bottom, saying, “Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them while they pick our pockets.” The Trump oligarchy divides us “so we don’t notice they’re defunding our schools, gutting our healthcare, and cutting taxes for themselves and their rich friends. It’s the oldest strategy in the world: divide and conquer.”

He also argues that the separation of church and state protects religion by maintaining the church’s ability to speak truth to power. His opposition to a Ten Commandments bill went viral: “Maybe they should try following the Ten Commandments before mandating them.” He calls school vouchers, which move education dollars from public to corporate-owned schools, “schemes,” scams, and “welfare for the rich.”

Trump’s FCC mocks Equal Time

The equal opportunity section (315) of the Communications Act of 1934 was a good idea. It was adopted to further First Amendment freedoms by requiring all broadcast licensees to give equal coverage to all legally qualified candidates for political office.

It tracked with the Fairness Doctrine, which required, when a political opinion was aired, that both sides be presented. The Fairness doctrine was repealed under Ronald Reagan in 1987, and our country has grown more divided ever since.

The irony in watching Carr resurrect “fairness” is that Republicans have long opposed fairness in the media; the Heritage Foundation railed against the Fairness Doctrine in 1993, arguing that requiring both sides of a political argument violated free speech. Watching Carr now apply “equal time” to left-leaning talk shows while exempting right wing views makes a mockery of fairness principles that drove the law in the first place.

Giving Talarico the last word

During an interview, Joe Rogan told Talarico he should run for president. That spells escalating attempts to censor him from Trump’s FCC, so he gets the last word.

During Colbert’s interview with Talarico, which aired on YouTube, Talarico noted that the right is now “trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read. This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. A threat to one of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights."

On his campaign website, Talarico writes about a barefoot rabbi who issued two overriding commandments: love God, and love your neighbor, “because there is no love of God without love of neighbor.”

“Every single person bears the image of the sacred; every single person is holy — not just the neighbors who look like me or pray like me or vote like me. 2,000 years ago, when the powerful few rigged the system, that barefoot rabbi walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice. To those who love our country, to those who love our neighbors: It’s time to start flipping tables.”

• Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.