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In the run-up to Election Day, Donald Trump was nearly as eager to attack the free press as he was to attack Kamala Harris. The Republican, for example, referred to journalists as “the enemy of the people,” media outlets as “evil” and news professionals as “scum.”
But the offensive wasn’t just rhetorical. As regular readers might recall, Trump also made clear that he hoped to use governmental power to crack down on journalism he dislikes. It’s why he invested so much time and energy talking about the FCC stripping TV networks of their broadcast licenses for airing coverage he disapproves of. We saw some abuses along these lines during his first term in the White House, and these tactics are almost certainly going to get worse in his second term.
Indeed, those tactics are unfolding during the transition process. The New York Times reported:
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday instructed congressional Republicans to block the passage of a bipartisan federal shield bill intended to strengthen the ability of reporters to protect confidential sources, dealing a potentially fatal political blow to the measure — even though the Republican-controlled House had already passed it unanimously.
At issue is legislation called the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act — or PRESS Act — which hasn’t generated much attention because it was supposed to be one of the year’s least controversial bills.
The basic idea behind the effort is straightforward: Early on in Attorney General Merrick Garland’s tenure, he created a policy that prohibited federal prosecutors from going after reporters’ private information or forcing them to testify about their confidential sources.
The point of the PRESS Act is to codify Garland’s policy into federal law.
Few major pieces of legislation have passed the divided U.S. House with unanimous support, but this one sailed through the chamber without opposition. Why would far-right Republicans support such a measure? Because of the protections it would create for conservative media outlets.
It’s why Tucker Carlson, among others, has been equally eager to tout the bill as anyone on the left.
So why was it, exactly, that the president-elect pointed to the legislation and issued an online edict that said Republicans “MUST KILL” the legislation? One possible explanation is that Trump did a detailed and thoughtful analysis of the bill and had concerns about how the policy would be implemented.
The far more likely explanation is that Trump saw a headline about protections for journalists, remembered that he hates the free press, and responded reflexively without doing any research or even taking the time to understanding the bill at its most basic level.
Either way, the result will probably be the same: A worthwhile bill that passed the House unanimously will likely die in the Senate because the incoming president issued a misguided order.
In case that weren’t quite enough, on the heels of Trump’s directive, Brendan Carr — Trump’s choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission — published an online item that read, “Broadcast licenses are not sacred cows. These media companies are required by law to operate in the public interest. If they don’t, they are going to be held accountable, as the Communications Act requires.”
The Times reported last week that Carr would be positioned to “drastically reshape” the FCC, leading industry insiders to worry about him wielding the agency’s power “as a political weapon for the right.”
The president-elect would no doubt be delighted to see exactly that.