Friday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports,” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said President Donald Trump has been carrying out a “campaign of censorship and control” over the media.
Partial transcript as follows:
GOMEZ: I have been alarmed by this administration’s campaign of censorship and control. And we’ve seen that in a variety of ways throughout this administration. With regard to the FCC, what we are seeing is a weaponization of the FCC’s regulatory authority to retaliate and to control the content of news media organizations.
So in this transaction, what this administration was able to get was a condition that has never before been seen with control of editorial decisions in the newsroom. And that is very problematic.
Our First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering in freedom of the press, and that is a direct violation of our First Amendment freedoms.
JANSING: We’ve seen the Trump administration exercise many pressure campaigns quite openly, pushing members of Congress to vote Donald Trump’s way. He’s used pressure against other countries in tariffs, in fact, in so many aspects of government. Did you see or feel that pressure firsthand during this process?
GOMEZ: What we watched was really what I was afraid of, which was a back room deal. The companies were talking to the FCC as a regulator and there was nothing transparent for people to be able to see what was happening. That’s why I’m glad that I succeeded in having the transaction brought before the full commission for a vote, so that we could be transparent about what was happening.
JANSING: You warned that it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price. How do you think this might impact people and maybe they don’t even realize it?
GOMEZ: Going back to this administration’s campaign of censorship and control, what they are doing is they want the news media to report on them in a positive light or in the light that they want. So they don’t want the media to do their job, which is to hold government to account without fear or favor.
And the public does suffer the consequences of that, because what you get is not the benefit of the hard-driving journalism that we want from our journalists, but rather an arm of the administration that is punished if it is not reporting in a way that this administration wants.
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