FCC To Install A ‘Bias Monitor’ At New CBS To Ensure Network Kisses Trump’s Ass

Last week Trump’s FCC lackey, Brendan Carr, quickly set about rubber stamping approval for the $8 billion CBS Skyance merger, now that CBS execs paid their $16 million bribe to the king.

One of the key merger conditions to net approval was the installation of a sort of FCC “bias ombudsman,” who’ll be installed at CBS to ensure that the new network is appropriately feckless when it comes to criticizing our buffoonish orange king. Making the rounds on right wing propaganda networks last week, Carr ironically insisted this was necessary in order to restore trust in U.S. journalism:

“They made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting. I think that’s so important,” Carr told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on his show Thursday night. “I mean, look, the American public simply do not trust these legacy media broadcasters. And so, if they stick with that commitment, you know, we’re sort of trust-but-verify mode, that’ll be a big win.”

CBS was technically bought by the billionaire Ellison family, close supporters and friends of Donald Trump. So the idea the network wasn’t already poised to kiss Republican ass without a babysitter is fairly laughable. The Ellisons are already making moves to buy right wing bullshitter Bari Weiss’ Free Press and put Weiss in an “advisor” role at CBS News, which speaks for itself.

Carr then confirmed that the FCC is installing a staffer whose entire job is to make sure a major U.S. news network is nice to our sensitive baby king:

“One of the things they’re going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,” Carr said. “So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the president. So that’s something that’s significant that we’re going to see happening as well.”

This is amazing if you’re old enough to remember how Republicans whined for decades about the “Fairness Doctrine,” a long since-discarded set of FCC guidance (which was never really enforced) that required broadcasters to at least try to be “fair and balanced” in their news coverage.

The idea was never very well thought out or implemented, and wouldn’t have fixed any of our modern media problems today anyway (consolidation under billionaire ownership, rampant propaganda), because it only applied to broadcast, not cable. Even if you could craft useful rules, the U.S. government is the last institution you want determining what news outlets can or can’t say, as is being demonstrated now.

The rule died in 1987 and the Republicans still whine and gnash their teeth about it to this day. They’ve spent an entire generation holding it up as a symbol of government oppression of free speech (again, even though it didn’t exist long, never worked, and never saw serious enforcement). Now the same party has directly installed a government babysitter at one of the nation’s biggest news conglomerates.

It’s a cliche, but Republicans claiming to “solve bias” while at the same time ensuring CBS is biased is positively Orwellian. MAGA likes to throw “Orwellian” around a lot, despite having clearly never actually read 1984, and has absolutely no idea that they’ve become the devils they pretended to despise.

On the bright side: CBS is going to be run by David Ellison, the nepobaby son of Larry Ellison. There’s no real indication David has absolutely any idea what he’s doing. These major mergers are already always ripe for disaster, given that the huge new debt created usually has to be offset by massive layoffs and a notable reduction in product quality (see, for example, the Time Warner Discovery merger).

That creates a sort of self-cannibalizing downward spiral for media executives who then lack the staff, funds, creativity, or credibility to meaningfully compete in the modern attention economy.

And with the internet eating major broadcasters’ lunch, it’s very likely that the Ellison family paid billions of dollars for a network whose fortunes are headed to the toilet, and whose viewers are headed elsewhere. They have the potential to create a right wing propaganda bullhorn that rivals Fox News; but it’s just as likely their disastrous management turns the network of Walter Cronkite into a sad, historical footnote.