When will the GOP learn that the media doesn’t exist to promote their draconian agenda—or any politician's agenda for that matter?
A federal judge struck down Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Thursday for trying to block local TV stations from running ads for abortion rights.
Ladapo and DeSantis have been threatening stations with cease and desist letters for airing ads in favor of ballot measure Amendment 4, Floridians Protecting Freedom, which would broaden access to abortion rights. This is in response to the Sunshine State implementing a strict 6-week abortion ban after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.
“To keep it simple for the State of Florida, it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in his ruling.
Meanwhile, you have creeps like Christian anti-abortion activist Randall Terry exploiting the First Amendment. Terry, who is on the presidential ballot in 12 states, paid for a gruesome political ad that the network was required to run under federal law. ABC issued a content warning for viewers before airing the ad during a live episode of “The View.” Terry’s political anti-abortion ad displayed graphic images of bloodied, dead fetuses and compared journalists to Nazis.
And in his echo chamber—ahem—social media site, Truth Social, former President Donald Trump has been threatening all the networks, calling for CBS’ broadcast license to be revoked because Vice President Kamala Harris keeps making him look bad with facts. Earlier in the campaign cycle, he did the same thing to ABC and NBC/MSNBC.
On Thursday, Trump continued flailing, posting screenshots of a post on X and a link to the Fox News article that bolstered his theory of CBS’ “significant and intentional news distortion” made by a conservative law firm, the Center for American Rights, over Harris’ “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes” appearances.
There is a pattern here—when networks do not bow to Trump’s falsehoods and tantrums, like a petulant toddler, he uses the only thing he knows—money—to try to litigate others into oblivion. Except, the law and the Constitution are on the side of the First Amendment.
Rupert Murdoch
Trump tried it again on Friday morning. On “Fox & Friends,” Trump said after his appearance on the show, that he had another “big event” with right-wing media tycoon and Fox News network founder Rupert Murdoch. He said they would discuss keeping negative ads about Trump off of Fox’s airways in the lead-up to Election Day.
“I’m going to tell him something very simple because I can’t talk to anybody else, but don’t put on negative commercials for 21 days,” he said. “Don’t put on the air. There are horrible people that come on and lie. I’m gonna say, Rupert, please do it this way, and then we’re gonna have a victory.”
And then, naturally, there’s his recent comments from last Sunday with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, where he said he’d use the “National Guard” on “the enemy from within.” Despite many Republicans trying to defend and explain his comments, it’s pretty hard to justify a U.S. president wanting to use the military against political opponents.
And let’s not forget his strange, opaque remarks earlier this month, when he suggested he’d punish the New York Times.
“The New York Times is one of the most dishonest of all,” Trump said to right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro. “I watched this New York Times, and it’s a classic. Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them. You’re going to have so much fun.”
The ultraconservative second Trump administration blueprint, Project 2025, created by 140 of Trump’s allies and colleagues, details plans to defund PBS, NPR, and any other public broadcasting.
Trump’s ongoing threats to media networks and calls by those like DeSantis to cease and desist what they don’t like and revoke licenses, only reiterate the GOP’s broader strategy of controlling narratives and silencing any voice that does not placate their lies.
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