Pearl River      Every day there’s more drama in the Trump show.  Recently, there was a tantrum provoked by late night host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel in his monologue.  He raised questions about the purity of the recently assassinated and sainted conservative activist and organizer’s positions and the killer.  Several big swinging local affiliates of ABC, owned by Disney, threatened to block the Kimmel show and more, the rightwing nest was stirred, and Kimmel found himself suspended “indefinitely,” despite having one of ABC’s most popular, i.e. profitable, shows.  Trump, whose superpower is to never to let any possible kerfuffle get past him, jumped into the affair and threatened, as did the head of the Federal Communications Commission, to have their broadcast licenses taken away from them.  He also whined that all of these TV and media folks were always on his case and giving him bad press.

We shouldn’t worry about Kimmel.  Even if they can him, he’ll land on his feet with some new gig. The real questions is how much should we worry about the FCC becoming a Trump police dog barking and biting at content, programs, and stations that are not owned by his MAGA friends?

Brendan Carr, the new boss commissioner of the FCC, correctly states that licenses are a privilege and have to serve the public interest.  The FCC has a lot of power in determine who gives a license, but somewhat less on the takeaway side.

It’s important to understand that the definition of “public interest” is rooted in the local broadcast area not the shouting distance from the White House.  The public interest is a big tent covering a plethora of views across the political and informational spectrum.  One of the conditions of enjoying a broadcast license, certainly for radio and I believe for television stations at full power as well, is filing a quarterly report that in fact documents in some detail the ways and means that stations serve the public interest.  We do that like clockwork at KABF for example.  Every time a license renewal comes up, the FCC checks to make sure these reports have been filed.  A lot of communication lawyers would make a pile of money defending stations whose license was threatened or suspended, if the FCC has that power, based on one show or some content complaint, against the reams of unchallenged reports by broadcasters of their community service in the public interest.  You would have to bet against the FCC, even as the big boys have seemed cowed by Trump, paid off frivolous legal claims, and curried his favor to grease through multi-billion-dollar mergers.

There’s a solution for all of this, but you won’t hear any mention of it.  If Trump or others think they aren’t getting a square deal, all they would have to do is restore the Fairness Doctrine.  Sadly, in a unanimous vote, the FCC repealed the doctrine in 1987, ironically after a 1985 FCC report that found that the concept of fairness was acting to restrain “free speech.”  Under the fairness doctrine, Trump could have asked for equal time, if he really wasn’t getting a fair shake.

This isn’t going to happen.  The last thing the current FCC wants, or that Trump and the entire conservative media ecosystem want, these days would be to allow others to challenge the stream of conspiracies, propaganda, and untruth and demand equal time.  Most observers believe the repeal of the fairness doctrine in broadcasts has been a major factor in abetting the polarization of politics and civic life.  Control of the media and blocking access to alternative voices and factchecking is part of the basic rightwing operations manual.  There are way, way more conservative and religious broadcasters than there are any other kind.  To serve them and the public, the FCC makes it hard to get a license and equally hard to lose one.

Trump can talk big, but he and his people don’t want to change this one iota, even if they want to beat their fists on the table every once in a while.  They don’t want free speech and information flow.  They want their speech.  Bringing back the fairness doctrine would mean there were other voices countering their own, and despite some temporary upset, none of them want that to change.