Trump’s war on free speech doesn’t just affect Democrats

Normally, I’m a big critic of President Trump’s, but you’ve got to give him credit for taking a robust stand for media accuracy, demanding that Kristen Welker be punished by the Federal Communications Commission for saying that Trump’s primary endorsements had yielded “some mixed results.”

The president didn’t pull any punches . “How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? … Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment. … The Press is a Disgrace to our Nation, and I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously.”

Carr can do it, too. There is an FCC policy that prohibits “news distortion” in over-the-air broadcasts. That policy has been around for more than 50 years, but was seldom invoked until Trump and Carr decided to revive and strengthen it.

There is almost no case law on this policy. And even in its original form, it is fairly dubious, First Amendment-wise. So it is important that Trump and Carr do whatever they can to get this policy well-established while they have the chance.

That’s all the more true since, in the past, this rule has been narrowly construed . Since the Reagan administration, the FCC invoked it just one time, when NBC rigged some gas tanks to explode so they’d get better footage for an investigative news segment.

Trump’s new “unfairness doctrine” goes well beyond that, seeking to sanction broadcasters who present “fake news” that’s unfairly critical of either him or the government. Carr’s first serious effort to implement this expanded “distortion” doctrine was an attempt to punish late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, for what Carr said appeared to be an intentional effort to mislead the public about the political leanings of Charlie Kirk’s assassin.

Welker’s alleged misstatement — I say “alleged” because she was arguably correct — was far more anodyne than that. She merely observed that Trump’s primary endorsements didn’t invariably win their primaries. Even if it was wrong, this hardly classifies as a “threat to our country,” regardless of what the president might say.

So if we can punish Kristen Welker, it will soon be open season on “unfairness” in the media and on “fake news.” This is going to be a huge help to any future Democratic president — perhaps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ? — who wants to go after the conspiracy theories and “purposeful inaccuracies” in right-wing media.

AM talk radio is the cornerstone of conservative media. And it’s on the public airways — and subject to the same FCC rules — just like NBC is. Radio shows like the now-defunct Infowars would be banned under the new doctrine. Heck, if the FCC had been serious about enforcement, it would have been banned under the old doctrine. Infowars was infamous for pushing dangerous and obviously bonkers conspiracy theories.

But Infowars would just be the tip of the iceberg. Listen to conservative stalwarts like Sean Hannity or Mark Levin and you’ll probably hear them giving air time to claims far more dubious than Welker’s on an hourly basis. Hannity promoted Trump’s claims that the election was stolen even though he knew they were lies. Levin — and lots of other broadcasters — went on at length about the “Biden crime family.”

None of this would be allowed under the new “unfairness doctrine.” All these shows would be forced off the air. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander so, of course, Republicans would have no objections to any future Democratic president’s efforts to clean up the media, just as they are refusing to defend Welker now.

Is that what you want, Republicans? Because that is what you are going to get. Donald Trump doesn’t care about you or the future of the GOP. He is a political solipsist and, as far as he is concerned, the world ends when he leaves office. That’s why he is constantly demanding Republicans eliminate the filibuster and undermining America’s faith in elections . When he is no longer president, none of the resulting carnage will affect him. Once conservative media is no longer useful to him — and no longer devoted to singing his praises — Trump could not care less.

MAGA Republicans enjoy “ liberal tears ” but it’s not just liberals who are suffering. The blowback from Trump’s buffoonery is affecting everyone from union workers in Manhattan to farmers in Kansas. We’re all paying higher food and gas prices, and we’re spending tens of billions on a new unplanned and unwinnable forever war. Now Trump wants to add the First Amendment to the wreckage.

Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.