The transformation from free speech champion to mafioso

By Martin Schram / Tribune News Service

The lines read as if they wouldn’t be spoken until Marlon Brando finished stuffing that cotton in his mouth so he’d sound just right when “The Godfather” cameras rolled. But this time they sounded unmistakably clear.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” a clear-speaking, cotton-free figure said, quite ominously. “Companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

This wasn’t Brando doing his Hollywood actor thing. It was Brendan Carr doing his Washington regulator/Trump enforcer thing. President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman spoke those words Sept. 17 on a right-wing podcast on X, Benny Johnson’s “Benny Show.” And the FCC head’s message apparently came through loudly and clearly to the few TV industry elites who were his real intended audience.

“A very minimal, reasonable step that can be taken,” Carr continued. “I mean, look, NPR has been defunded, PBS has been defunded, Colbert is retiring. Joy Reid is out at MSNBC. Terry Moran is gone from ABC that is now admitting that they are biased. CBS has now made some commitments to us that they are going to return to more fact-based journalism. So you see some lashing out from people like Kimmel who are frankly powerless and looking for ways to get attention.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-the-transformation-from-free-speech-champion-to-mafioso/