"Dear Bob, Nice fake news network you have there. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it. Love, Brendan."
That isn't quite what incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr wrote to Disney CEO Bob Iger this week, but it was pretty dang close.
Carr has served on the Federal Communications Commission since 2017 and is President-elect Donald Trump's choice to serve as chairman next year. And he's taking no gruff from Disney-owned ABC News, which just agreed to pay $15 million in damages (and another million in legal fees) for defaming Trump during a "This Week" segment earlier this year.
In an official FCC letter dated Dec. 21 (and just released on X by Rasmussen), Carr opened by reminding Iger that "Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly" and that "ABC's own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public."
You might wonder what's newsworthy about any of that, and you'd be right to. But Carr merely used ABC's tarnished reputation as a jumping-off point for what really matters to Disney HQ: wringing more dollars out of ABC's local affiliates.
"When we talk about trust in media, though, it is important to draw a distinction between national programming outlets like ABC," Carr continues, "and the many local broadcast TV stations that are working to serve their local communities. Indeed, Americans view those two types of media entities very differently." Viewers increasingly tune out ABC News — and all the other big-name, three-letter outlets — but still trust their KXXX or WXXX affiliate.
"It is against this backdrop — the vast divide in trust between the national news media and local outlets — that I write you today" because "My understanding is that ABC is attempting to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations under the threat of terminating long-held affiliations, which could result in blackouts and other harms to local consumers of broadcast news and content."
Carr goes into the details of ABC's negotiations, which are technical and probably not of much interest to laymen like you and me. But the crux is that "ABC is reportedly pulling the marquee programming, including local sports, from broadcast TV stations in favor of co-owned cable networks or those same subscription streaming services."
Still too technical? ABC wants to pull the programming you've been enjoying for free or as part of your existing cable package away from your local affiliate and stick it behind ABC's streaming paywall.
"This is not how Congress envisioned the retransmission consent process working," and the "massive trust divide has emerged between local news outlets and national programmers like ABC only increases the importance of retransmission consent revenues remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local news operations and content that serves their communities." Carr sharply reminds Iger.
More:
Not only does this raise localism concerns under the FCC's statutory public interest standard, but it calls into question the extent to which some national programming networks are able to influence station operations and whether the various terms of network affiliation agreements could unduly inhibit the ability of local broadcast TV stations to make programming decisions that best reflect the needs and interests of their communities.
Carr then moved on to this not-so-veiled threat to jerk ABC's broadcast license if they crack the whip on local stations: "If the network/affiliate relationship is jeopardizing either of those objectives, then the FCC will be compelled to act, particularly considering the American peoples' interest in trusted local news outlets."
"I want you to know that I will be monitoring the outcome of your ongoing discussions with local broadcast TV stations to ensure that those negotiations enable local broadcast TV stations to meet their federal obligations and serve the needs of their local communities," Carr concluded.
Whatever plans Iger might have had regarding your local ABC affiliate, he might want to re-examine them as hard as Carr says he'll look at the results.
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