The Most Powerful Man in Media You’ve Never Heard of

A story about power, punishment, and the battle for public trust.

Mar 26, 2025

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The media landscape changed dramatically in the 1980s. Partisan media has always existed, particularly in the newspaper arena. But when people began to communicate via the airwaves – TV and radio – the government decided that in order to get a license to broadcast, things needed to be fair.

In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, began requiring TV and radio stations to cover important public issues and present differing viewpoints fairly, because they were “public trustees.” This rule was known as the Fairness Doctrine, and it required broadcasters to give similar amounts of airtime for contrasting sides of controversial issues, allowed the subject of an attack piece (say, a business accused of wrongdoing) to respond to allegations, and more.

Sounds like a dream, right? Ronald Reagan and other conservatives didn’t think so. At the time, cable news networks like CNN were in their infancy, and Australian-born media magnate Rupert Murdoch was building his media empires – an empire that would later give rise to Fox News.

In 1987, after lawsuits in which the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC abandoned the rule, saying it violated free speech. Congress disagreed, and wanted to maintain the Fairness Doctrine, so they passed a bill requiring the FCC to continue to implement it. Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill.

Although the Fairness Doctrine is gone, the FCC still regulates radio, TV, and other media in the US. And currently, the FCC is being used to investigate media organizations the Trump administration doesn’t like, while permitting the “friendly” ones to do some of the same things the others are being investigated for.

Leading the FCC

The new head of the FCC, Brendan Carr, first joined the agency as a staffer in 2012 before becoming its general counsel. Appointed as a commissioner by President Trump during his first term and later reappointed by President Biden, he officially took over as FCC chairman this year. There are five FCC commissioners: three are meant to be from the party in power in the White House, and two from the minority party.

Carr also wrote the FCC section of Project 2025 (P25), the conservative plan to reshape the government. In it, Carr said he thinks the FCC needs big changes. He believes companies like Google and Meta have too much power over what people see online and how they shop.

"Today, a handful of corporations can shape everything from the information we consume to the places we shop," Carr wrote in P25. "These corporate behemoths are not merely exercising market power, they are abusing dominant positions." Carr advocates for eliminating Section 230 immunity, which would reclassify internet companies as publishers and not platforms, and make them accountable for what is said by users on their platforms.

FCC takes the lead

Carr has also taken aim at some broadcasters, accusing them of political bias, while allowing others with a different political bias free rein.

Last year, when he was still a candidate, Trump sued CBS for $20 billion, saying that they edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris to make her responses look more polished than they actually were, and that in doing so, they were trying to harm his campaign. (The network also offered Trump an interview slot on the news magazine show, which he declined, before eventually winning the election.)

Before Trump’s lawsuit, a formal complaint was filed with the FCC by the conservative Center for American Rights (CAR), accusing WCBS, a CBS-owned station, of “engaging in significant and intentional news distortion” in how the Harris interview was edited. While the FCC isn’t allowed to censor the press or violate First Amendment rights, it is illegal for broadcasters to intentionally distort the news. If there is clear evidence of this, the FCC can take action. The complaint was thrown out last year by former FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who is a Democrat. But Carr revived the FCC investigation of the edits made to the Harris interview.

CBS is asking the FCC to drop the case, and has asked a Texas court to dismiss Trump's lawsuit, which echoes CAR’s complaint in contending that the editing of the 60 Minutes interviews was done to give an advantage to Harris, his Democratic opponent. Network attorneys said Trump is seeking to “punish a news organization for constitutionally protected editorial judgments they do not like.”

“They not only ask for $20 billion in damages but also seek an order directing how a news organization may exercise its editorial judgment in the future,” they wrote. “The First Amendment stands resolutely against these demands.” To make its case, CBS handed over the unedited transcript of its Harris to show there were no substantial edits of the Harris interview.

The FCC under Carr is also investigating radio and podcast company Audacy over reporting done by KCBS, a station owned by Audacy, on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions in San Jose, California, in January. The station shared the live locations and vehicle descriptions of undercover immigration officials as they were looking for illegal immigrants. Carr suggested that KCBS’s reporting may have violated its “public interest obligations.” However, the First Amendment usually protects news coverage under freedom of the press.

Carr is also reviewing the reorganization plan that helped Audacy emerge from bankruptcy last year, a deal he opposed but was approved before Carr became FCC chairman. The plan made a company associated with Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros – a naturalized U.S. citizen and frequent target of right-wing criticism due to his progressive views – a major stockholder in the broadcast group.

(Audacy hosts my podcast, Here’s Where It Gets Interesting).

Carr has also initiated investigations into ABC’s moderation of a presidential debate and against NBC for allowing Kamala Harris to be a guest right before the election, even though Trump got a spot in an NFL game with far more viewers the next day.

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Defunding public broadcasters

Carr isn’t just targeting commercial news networks – he’s also going after broadcasters like NPR and PBS that receive portions of their budgets from federal funding.

In late January, Carr launched an investigation into these organizations, arguing they might be violating federal law by airing sponsorship messages that resemble advertisements. As noncommercial stations, they can’t run ads.

Katherine Maher and Paula Kerger, the heads of NPR and PBS, denied they had violated federal regulations or guidelines.

Still, Carr suggested Congress should cut their funding. “I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace,” he wrote.

But CBS, Audacy, and public broadcasters aren’t the only targets. Carr has reopened investigations into NBC, ABC, Verizon, Comcast, and other major networks.

Democrats call it a witch hunt

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, has launched an inquiry into whether the FCC is unfairly targeting news organizations Trump dislikes, calling the investigations “unprecedented” and “intrusive.”

What does the FCC want?

Ensuring that one media narrative – one that says positive things about the current administration, or at least keeps criticism to a minimum – seems to be a top priority. That includes blocking journalists from covering Trump or limiting their access.

In February, the White House banned Associated Press (AP) reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One after AP refused to recognize the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” Soon after, the White House took control of the press pool, a group of reporters who cover events and share information with other news outlets. This was previously managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) to ensure fair access.

Following the White House’s lead, the Pentagon removed major news outlets like NBC News, The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post from their workspaces covering the Department of Defense, replacing them mostly with conservative-leaning media.

Trump calls media “corrupt” and “illegal”

In mid-March, Trump took his attacks on the media even further. The president suggested some of what they do should be considered against the law and looked into.

“CNN and MS-DNC [Trump’s nickname for MSNBC] … are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what they do is illegal,” Trump said during a speech at the Department of Justice.

The president also claimed that media outlets work together and that their reporting can influence judges' opinions.

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative,” Trump said.

What’s next?

Trump’s battles with the press are far from over. With lawsuits, investigations, and new policies, his administration is reshaping how the media operates in the U.S. The fight will likely continue in the courts – and in public debates about what free speech really means.

But that doesn’t mean that this is just business as usual for the FCC – far from it. Kim Zarkin, who is the author of a book on the FCC, said, “This is jaw-droppingly different from how the agency has worked. I’ve never seen this.”

Carr makes that clear on his social media accounts that highlight and celebrate each run-in with the media. And to be clear, the role is one he relishes, bragging to friends that he is having “the time of his life,” according to The Daily Beast. Responding to the report, Carr proudly proclaimed on X, “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”