On today's BradCast: As you know, much of what we hold dear in these United States is under assault right now, thanks to the man we were collectively dumb enough to elect as President last year. But, for countless reasons, no single institution may be more important to help protect than our nation's free press, which is under far greater fire than I think most Americans realize. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Sadly, that attack has now been joined by too many of the major corporate outlets that control far too many of our previously independent mainstream news sources, all the way down to the local level. And the worst of them, as we've recently learned, are all too willing to hoax their own customers into unknowingly joining the battle.

We've got a number of U.S. media-under-attack stories for you today, from international U.S. media to national media to local media.

First, a bit of encouraging news on the international level. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered [PDF] the restoration of the 83-year old, Congressionally-mandated and funded Voice of America. The international news outlet, originally created by the U.S. to counter Nazi propaganda in Europe, had been broadcasting continuously since 1942, until Donald Trump ordered its parent agency, the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) shut down last month. Some 1,300 VOA staffers and contractors were sidelined, as the airwaves of VOA and its USAGM-overseen sister networks such as Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting fell silent. A number of VOA journalists sued, and on Tuesday, the court ordered USAGM to return employees and contractors to their pre-March 14 status. That's good news, though VOA is not fully back yet, and the Administration is expected, of course, to appeal the ruling.

Nationally, corporate pressure super-charged by Trump is also threatening another American broadcast institution. 60 Minutes' longtime executive producer, Bill Owens, quit on Tuesday amid pressure from CBS' corporate owners Paramount, as the company is seeking approval from the Administration for a corporate merger with an outfit called Skydance. That approval, however, is threatened by Trump, who filed a laughable, $20 billion suit against the top-rated, long-running newsmagazine after he didn't like an interview they aired with Kamala Harris before last year's election. Since then, Trump has similarly bristled at tough reports from the notoriously independent new program, charging that they will "pay a big price" for daring to report accurately on his Administration. We don't yet know the full story of what happened at 60 Minutes. But as Paramount is hoping to settle Trump's ridiculous suit, Owens told staffers that the program's independence is threatened, so it was time for him to leave. That, even as he told the show's employees that it is "too important to the country" for them to quit in protest.

From attacks against the U.S. international free press to the national level, we finally arrive on today program at still more threats newly underway against highly-trusted local news outlets, thanks in no small part to collusion between giant corporate broadcasters and the Trump Administration's corrupted FCC.

Last month, Trump's newly-seated Federal Communications Commission Chair, Brendan Carr, announced a new initiative to gut FCC radio and television rules that he described in a notice seeking public comment as his "Delete, Delete, Delete" plan [PDF].

As The Desk detailed earlier this month, the nation's largest owner of local television stations, Nexstar Media Group --- which controls more than 200 TV stations in more than 160 markets across the country --- ordered the local newsrooms at all of the stations it operates (including affiliates of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, CW, etc.), to create a "news" story from deceptive, misleading talking points that suggest that the FCC was seeking comment from the public on regulations that "threaten the growth of your local TV news stations". Each, nearly identical report, voiced by local anchors, aired on dozens of stations, instructing viewers to visit a weblink that resolves to a Nexstar-run page instructing them how to let the FCC know that viewers are "worried about the long-term health of my local television stations" and want to "eliminate the regulations that are threatening the growth of my local TV station."

As a number of employees at some of those stations told The Desk on background, however, they were uncomfortable running the reports as "news", but were given no choice by their corporate parents at Nexstar.

Given the national power company, which already rakes in some $5 billion per year, it's hardly a surprise that we haven't heard much about this story in the corporate media. We do our best to make up for that today.

Our guest is the longtime award-winning broadcast journalism veteran turned media activist SUE WILSON, who described some of this earlier today in an article at The BRAD BLOG headlined "Trump's FCC on Precipice of Ending All Limits on Corporate Control of Local TV News Stations". In it, she explains how Nexstar already controls two --- and sometimes three (with FCC permission) --- TV stations in virtually every major media market in the country. But now, with the FCC's Carr looking to "delete, delete, delete" as many regulations as possible, the company is hoping to do away with remaining restrictions on how many stations any single company may control both nationally and at the local market level.

Wilson details how Nexstar and fellow broadcast goliath Sinclair, a far-right outlet who ordered a similar "must-run" package for its nearly 200 stations in support of Trump back in 2018, have long been gaming the system meant to limit corporate control of local stations. Today she details how they are colluding with the new FCC Chair to simply gut regulatory ownership limits while ignoring, or somehow working around, those that have been implemented statutorily by Congress.

"What we are seeing more and more across the United States is that you can turn on your TV set, and you can watch a local news reporter do a report," she tells me today. "You turn to the next station and it's the same reporter doing the exact same report." And that, of course, is with the limits currently in place --- the ones that Nexstar are misleading their own viewers into helping them make it worse. Worse for viewers, anyway, if not more profitable for Nexstar, Sinclair and the others.

Wilson also details today --- as she did in her article earlier --- how you can, and should, respond yourself to the FCC's call for comments. But you will need to do it quickly. Final comments are supposed to be filed --- either by Twitter/X or via the FCC's Comment site --- by Monday, April 28.

"We are fighting a juggernaut in the Capitol. They want to deregulate the media. They want to take over the media, is what they are really after. We have to stop them," argues Wilson, urging listeners to remind the FCC in comments that the "publicly-owned airwaves belong to us."

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It's time to speak up loudly to the FCC to save our local TV news! The newly captured and Trump-led Federal Communications Commission is taking comments right now from the public about any and all broadcast regulations we think should be changed or removed entirely. It sounds innocuous enough, but...the so-called "Delete, Delete, Delete" initiative is aimed at nothing less than destroying all competition in local TV news, effectively destroying local news itself...

There are two issues of note here, both designed to prevent a single giant corporation from having too large of a voice in both our local communities and our national zeitgeist. Nationally, the 1996 Telecommunications Act provides that one TV broadcaster may reach no more than 39% of the total U.S. population. Locally, FCC Rules mandate that broadcasters may license One network TV station (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) plus one non-network (think CW) station in a single local TV market unless they obtain a waiver from the Commission. The National Association of Broadcasters are trying to upend both (and falsely claiming the 39% cap is an FCC rule, when it is actual statutory law.)

How many of you switch from one local TV station to another, only to see the exact same report? Not just the same reporter, but the exact same report? It's happening all across the nation. I have witnessed it, and so have millions. This is the model Big Broadcasting (Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna and others) are already using. Now, potentially with the help of their own regulators on a captured FCC, they're trying to expand that model.

This pattern plays out in dozens of local TV markets across the United States, and not just with Sinclair, a notorious right-wing outlet. As my organization, Media Action Center, pointed out in Comments to the FCC and an Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, when Nexstar, Sinclair, Tegna and others control two or three stations in the same town, they merely broadcast the exact same stories across all of their stations.

Last month, the new Trump-confirmed FCC Chair Brendan Carr put out a statement on X/Twitter describing his deregulatory "Delete, Delete, Delete!" initiative. The text of the tweet with the attachment statement trumpeted: "NEW: Chairman Carr has announced a massive new deregulatory initiative, opening up a docket to seek comment on every rule, regulation or guidance document that the FCC should eliminate to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens." The statement itself explains: "The FCC is committed to ending all the rules and regulations that are no longer necessary. And we welcome the public's participation and feedback throughout this process."

Isn't this great? A Federal Agency asking We the People what we think! Except...Most people don't know that much about broadcast policy or regulations, burdensome or otherwise. Most don't know that We the People own the airwaves and Big Media must be licensed to broadcast over our airwaves, and there are laws and rules protecting our interests.

So what did Nexstar Media Group do in response?...

When we allow a felon to become President of the United States (thanks, in no small part, to extreme rightwing activists on the Supreme Court ignoring and rewriting the 14th Amendment), it's not surprising that he'd quickly begin violating laws and undermining the U.S. Constitution. When that felon also hopes to be a dictator, we certainly shouldn't be surprised that one of his first targets is the Constitution's landmark guarantees of a free press, as discussed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

FIRST... Unfortunately, the First Amendment isn't the only one Donald Trump is hoping to dismantle. According to nonprofit news outlet CalMatters, ICE has already begun rounding up migrant workers in Central California, resulting in about 75% of farm-workers staying home this week during peak harvest season for oranges and other produce in America's "Salad Bowl". If that continues longer term, economists are predicting "absolute economic devastation" locally, skyrocketing food prices and shortages across the country nationally, along with a "recession-level event if this is the new long-term norm."

In related news, Trump's Executive Order signed on Monday, seeking to redefine, by fiat, the text and clear meaning of the 14th Amendment's very first sentence establishing birthright citizenship to anyone born here, regardless of the citizenship status of the parents, ran into its first legal roadblock in Court on Wednesday. A Reagan-appointed federal judge declared today that the Order "boggles the mind," calling it "blatantly unconstitutional". He temporarily paused the Order nationwide in the first of five different challenges brought by 22 state Attorneys General. If allowed to be enacted, as one of the challengers argued in court today, it would "impact hundreds of thousands of citizens nationwide who will lose their citizenship under this new rule."

THEN... Trump doesn't seem to much care for the First Amendment either. And, shamefully, a number of mainstream broadcast news outlets owned by major corporations have been all too eager to help him dismantle it. See Disney-owned ABC News' pathetic agreement in December to settle Trump's absurdly frivolous lawsuit with blatantly unconstitutional claims. Instead of fighting the defamation suit, they agreed to contribute $15 million to Trump's Presidential Library fund. See also the reports last week that Paramount-owned CBS News is in talks to do the same thing over another ridiculous complaint that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris in a way that Trump didn't like.

While those outfits are settling private lawsuits, Trump's new Federal Communications Commission Chair, Brendan Carr is weaponizing the FCC to go after the same news outlets. Last week, President Biden's outgoing Chair dismissed several specious complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC that echoed Trump's private lawsuits, declaring "the FCC should not be the President's speech police" and that "the FCC should not be journalism's censor-in-chief." This week, however, the newly seated Carr un-dismissed those complaints (if not the ones against a Fox affiliate, for some reason).

We're joined today by JOHN BERGMAYER, the Legal Director at good government group Public Knowledge. He charges that "Chairman Carr has made it plain he intends to weaponize the FCC to threaten political speech and news coverage he disagrees with." You're not surprised right?

"We have things like defamation law against a public figure, but you can't just prove that they are wrong, or you disagree with them, or they're being unfair or 'mean to me'. You have to prove they are 'actively deciding to harm me' through conscious deception," Bergmayer explains today. "That's a very hard standard to meet. I don't think any of these cases meet the very tough requirements for the FCC to decide in the complainants favor."

He also adds: "It's really notable that Chairman Carr did not reinstate a complaint that was against a Fox affiliate in Philadelphia, that was based on the Fox affiliate airing information that it knew, that was judged to be, defamatory."

"It really is a troubling sign that the current Chairman views these regulatory tools as a means to advance his cultural and partisan agenda," Bergmayer tells me. "What's particularly disturbing is that the Chairman wants to pick fights with the First Amendment rights of broadcasters or use dubious theories of law to go after perceived slights by Big Tech."

We also discuss the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling earlier this month that appears to end the FCC's ability, as a federal agency, to ensure Net Neutrality and an Open Internet (not that Trump or his FCC would have any particular interest in doing so.)

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, following an unprecedented blizzard in the U.S. South; yet another new, climate-changed fueled fire amid record dry weather here in L.A. County; Trump's delusional claims about California's water supply; and more...

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Will he ever face any punishment for his many crimes? That is among the many issues covered on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... The fight over Donald Trump's absurd selection of alleged statutory rapist Matt Gaetz as the next U.S. Attorney General continued in Congress today, as Republicans on the House Ethics Committee appeared to block the release of the report from a years-long investigation into the former Florida Reps' well-documented record of alleged sex trafficking of minors, paying some $10,000 for sex, and illicit drug use, among other (previously) disqualifying issues for someone tapped to head the Dept. of Justice as the nation's top law enforcement official.

THEN... The clown show of other Trump appointments to key government posts has continued over the past 24 hours with the selection of pro-wrestling's WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to head the Dept. of Education (which Trump has previously vowed to shut down) and TV doctor/snake-oil salesman Dr. Mehmet Oz to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

But one of Trump's picks this past week has received much less attention than it deserves. Brendan Carr, author of the chapter on the FCC in Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 [PDF], was selected over the weekend to become Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, even though Trump pretended during the campaign that he wanted nothing to do with Project 2025 and the people who created it. Carr quickly took to his friend Elon Musk's Twitter/X after his nomination on Sunday to declare a war on "censorship" by Big Tech companies, before subsequently appearing on Fox "News" to suggest the FCC must review broadcast licenses granted to news outlets like CBS. During the campaign, Trump called for the censorship or complete shutdown of almost all broadcast and cable news outlets that are not rightwing propagandists.

It must also be noted that Project 2025 specifically calls (see p. 279) for reviewing the broadcast licenses to Pacifica Radio Network, which has dozens of affiliate stations across the country that air The BradCast every day, including KPFK, our flagship station here in Los Angeles.

NEXT... The New York state justice system is in completely uncharted waters at the moment, with the election of Donald Trump following his conviction earlier this year on 34 felony counts of fraud related to his hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Sentencing in the case had been scheduled for November 26. But this week, prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg informed Justice Juan Merchan they were willing to pause sentencing to litigate Trump's assertions that, following his election this month and the U.S. Supreme Court's absurd "Presidential Immunity" ruling over the Summer, he can never be sentenced at all and the case must be dismissed in full. NY prosecutors, however, disagree and argue he should still be sentenced even if, in a worst case scenario, it must wait until after Trump is out of office.

We're joined today to help us make sense of this mess by George Washington University law school professor RANDALL D. ELIASON, who previously served as chief of the U.S. Justice Dept.'s Fraud and Public Corruption section in D.C.. Over the weekend, Eliason argued in an article at The Atlantic that New York must proceed with sentencing of Trump before he is sworn in to office next January.

"At this point," he tells me today, "it's almost less important what the actual sentence is. But I think it's important for the justice system to see that this case gets concluded, and doesn't just kind of dangle out there for the next four years. The case has already been tried and we already have a jury verdict. And it could be sentenced before he even takes office. That's not going to 'chill' him from doing anything as President, because it's over, and it's not going to take any of his time because appeals are handled by the lawyers."

While conceding "we don't have any precedent for any of this" and that a prison sentence certainly can't happen while he's in office, Eliason argues that it's "important now that A sentencing happens," even if it "can't be that meaningful or consequential. But I think it should take place just as a matter of the justice system completing this prosecution, honoring the jury's verdict, and having an official judgment of conviction entered on the record that he is, in fact, a convicted felon. Then the appeals can proceed in the normal course."

In addition to much more on that, we also discuss...

• The "extremely concerning" appointment of Matt Gaetz as U.S. Attorney General, who, the longtime DoJ veteran Eliason describes as "completely unqualified for the job" with "his only connection to the Justice Department, as far as I can tell, as the subject of a criminal investigation";
• The likelihood of Trump using recess appointments to push many of them through without Constitutionally-mandated Senate oversight. "How much Trump can get away with is going to come down to whether Senate Republicans have any backbone at all, and are willing to stand up for their Constitutional role for advice and consent." (Uh, oh);
• Whether the sprawling racketeering conspiracy case against Trump can continue in Georgia against his 18 indicted co-conspirators even if the ringleader of the attempt to steal the 2020 election in the Peach State is now either let off the hook entirely or is allowed to defer the trial until after he is out of office;
• How Eliason would like to see Special Counsel Jack Smith end the two federal indictments against Trump for his attempt to steal the 2020 election and his theft of hundreds of pages of highly classified national security documents the last time he left office in 2021;
• And whether Trump will still have to pay his civil penalties no matter what happens, including the $355 million fraud verdict against him in New York State and the $83 million jury award in the sexual assault case against him won by writer E. Jean Carroll...

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