” Dear Bob, Nice fake news system you have it. If anything were to occur, it would be a pity. Like, Brendan”.
That’s not quite what new FCC seat Brendan Carr wrote this week to Disney CEO Bob Iger, but it came pretty close.
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Carr has been a member of the Federal Communications Commission since 2017 and will be the new chairman of the commission when Donald Trump takes office. And he’s not complaining to Disney-owned ABC News, which recently agreed to pay$ 15 million in damages ( again,$ 1 million in legal fees ) for defaming Trump earlier this year during a” This Week” segment.  ,
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 noteworthy about any of that, and you’d be proper to. Carr, however, only jumped off the wagon and used ABC’s tarnished status as a point of departure for what Disney HQ really cares about: getting more money from ABC’s regional affiliates.  ,
However, Carr continues,” When we talk about faith in the internet, it is important to distinguish between native transmit TV channels that are working to serve their local areas and national programming sources like ABC.” However, Americans view those two types of media companies really differently”. Viewers extremely tune out ABC News — and all the other big-name, three-letter outlets— but also respect their KXXX or WXXX online.
I write to you today in response to” the enormous gap in trust between the national news media and nearby stores,” according to my understanding, which is caused by the risk of ending long-held affiliations that could cause local viewers to experience blackouts and other issues.
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Carr goes into the technical aspects of ABC’s agreements, which are likely of little interest to laypeople like you and me. The issue is that ABC is reportedly removing the top programming, including local activities, from broadcast TV channels in favor of co-owned cable network or those similar subscription streaming service, though.
Still very technical? ABC wants to move the coding you’ve been watching on ABC’s streaming paywall apart from your local advertising and keep it there for free or as part of your existing wire offer.  ,
The “massive trust gap between local media outlets and national engineers like ABC only makes the importance of retransmission acceptance income remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local information operations and articles that serves their communities” claim Congress, saying” this is not how the retransmission consent process worked.” Carr brings Iger right back to mind.
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This raises questions about decentralization in light of the FCC’s legal public interest standard, as well as the extent to which some federal programming networks have the authority to control station operations, and whether the various terms of network affiliation agreements was unfairly impede the ability of local broadcast TV stations to create 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 impose local station regulations:” If the network/affiliate relationship is jeopardizing either of those objectives, then the FCC will be compelled to act, especially given the American people’s’interest in trusted local news outlets.”
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Carr said,” I want you to know that I will be monitoring the results of your ongoing discussions with local broadcast TV stations to make sure those discussions enable local broadcast TV stations to fulfill their federal obligations and meet the needs of their local communities.”
Whatever ideas Iger might have had about your neighborhood ABC affiliate, he might want to reevaluate them as thoroughly as Carr says he’ll evaluate the outcomes.
Recommended:  , Don’t Look Now, but Iran’s Islamist Theocrats Are in Deep Doo-Doo
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