We’ve seen so much media malfeasance in recent times, but it’s arguably gotten worse since the start of the Iran conflict, as the Fake News mainstream conglomerates have been posting false stories with regularity.
Multiple liberal outlets implied or outright alleged that the recent jihadist attempted bomb attack at Gracie Mansion was targeted at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Of course, it had already been verified that the two teen terrorists were trying to indiscriminately maim and kill people attending dueling pro and anti-Iranian regime protests.
Meanwhile, the BBC “mistranslated” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s remarks to say that he said “death to the Iranian people” when he actually said “death to the Iranian regime. Oh.
The list goes on.
Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr has taken notice, and on Saturday, he warned broadcast outlets that they should consider actually reporting the truth if they want to keep their licenses:
Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up.
The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they… https://t.co/7bBgnsbalw
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) March 14, 2026
As you can see, Carr was responding to a post by Donald Trump where the president bashed outlets like the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for inaccurate reporting about five planes that had been “struck down” in Saudi Arabia (they weren’t).
Carr’s tweet continues:
The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.
And frankly, changing course is in their own business interests since trust in legacy media has now fallen to an all time low of just 9% and are ratings disasters.
The American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation’s airwaves.
It is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news.
When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong. It means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can’t allow that to happen.
Time for change!
Carr is right: The public has lost faith and confidence in the media. The FCC, however, can only do so much about the scourge of Fake News, and the reason is that they have jurisdiction over the public airwaves — but not over what newspapers print or what slop cable news puts on air. That leaves most of the major leftist outlets, such as CNN, MS NOW, The NY Times, and The Washington Post, et al., unaffected by his announcement.
The national networks like NBC, ABC, and CBS aren’t required to have licenses, either, but their local affiliates are, so they might want to pay attention to what Carr has to say.
Meanwhile, Trump has been quite successful at punishing purveyors of misinformation; he’s secured settlements for tens of millions of dollars from ABC News (for anchor George Stephanopoulos’ false on-air assertion that Trump had been found civilly liable for “rape”) and CBS News (for its doctored Kamala Harris interview). He has other pending litigation as well, although some cases have been thrown out of court.
The best way to combat fake news, however, is for audiences to tune away in droves and ignore the worst of the worst mainstream media outlets. We’ve seen plenty of that happening, and we need to see even more.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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