MIKE DAVIS: The rules governing local TV are older than the internet. That's insane |
FCC Chair Brendan Carr joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss CBS News' decision to cancel 'The Late Show' and the reaction from media and the left.
When FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appears before the Senate Commerce Committee on Dec. 17, Democrats will likely spend their energy projecting. After years of colluding with Big Tech to censor conservatives, they will claim that Jimmy Kimmel getting briefly suspended for his own vile comments about Charlie Kirk is somehow a threat to free speech.
But what the committee should focus on, and what should be a bipartisan issue, is the economic crisis facing America’s local news. The regulations governing local television are older than the internet as we know it. They’re not just outdated, they confer a structural advantage for the liberal media and tech giants, and a serious handicap for the conservative-leaning local voices who millions trust.
FCC chair Brendan Carr called out a Democratic California state senator this week for threatening to break up broadcast company Sinclair for continuing not to air "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on its stations. (Bloomberg/Getty)
These ownership rules were designed for a 1990s world. Google did not exist. Smartphones were a decade away. Netflix was not even imaginable. Yet local TV and radio stations, the most relied-upon and trusted news sources in the country, are regulated as if it is the era of dial-up. Meanwhile, the largest technology companies on Earth,........