Why FCC Chair Brendan Carr Is a Dangerous Moron
5/21/20261 hr 7 min
Kara is joined by FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, Knight First Amendment Institute executive director Jameel Jaffer, and The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel to discuss FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s escalating campaign against media companies, broadcasters and speech President Trump dislikes. They discuss Carr’s threats against ABC/Disney, his attempts to revive old rules around “equal time” and “news distortion,” and the Trump administration's broader push to control federal agencies. They also explain how Carr's actions create a chilling effect on free speech, and why media companies must fight back. Plus: Why Nilay says Carr's actions towards broadcasters are a "test balloon" for future internet regulation. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKara Swisher· Host0:00
Why has he shifted like this? You and I both know he was- Yeah ... not this way. Not this way.
Nilay Patel· Guest0:05
He was a, he was a deregulatory Republican- Yeah ... during Trump one.
Kara Swisher· Host0:08
Yeah.
Nilay Patel· Guest0:08
And now he's a MAGA warrior, and I think he's, he's just like a political animal. I think he sees his lucrative podcast paid for by, you know, illegal supplements [laughs] in the future, and that's gonna be a great exit ramp for him.
Speaker 30:20
[upbeat music] It's on.
Kara Swisher· Host0:21
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone. From New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is On with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher. My guests today are FCC Commissioner Ana Gomez, Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge and host of the Decoder podcast and the Vergecast. I gathered them for a long-awaited episode about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and his moronic behavior and his problematic actions. And they go hand-in-hand, just for people who don't know, specifically how he's weaponized the formerly independent federal regulatory agency and turned it essentially into a propaganda arm of the Trump administration. This is not just my opinion. The stuff he has done is really egregious, and I wanted to talk about it. Earlier this week, the Legal Accountability Center, a bipartisan watchdog, filed complaints in Washington, D.C. and Maryland against Carr and asked for an investigation, stating that he, quote, "violated his ethical obligations