[Vision2020] Controlling the Media Narrative: Investigate FCC Chairman Pai's Sweetheart Deal for Trump TV

[Ted Moffett]

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/investigate-Pai?t=2&akid=26180%2E4637676%2ELv0cXm

All below from website above:

Tell the FCC inspector general: Investigate FCC Chairman Pai's Sweetheart
Deal for Trump TV

It's no secret that Donald Trump hates the media, but he's not just
complaining about it on Twitter. Just as Trump's Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai has been trying to kill net neutrality,
Pai has also been quietly changing FCC policies to create a more pro-Trump
media landscape.

*Almost from the day he took office, Pai has pushed through a series of
radical rule changes to help out the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a network so
cozy with Trump that it is sometimes called "Trump TV."* Among other
sweetheart deals, Pai is scrapping FCC rules on media ownership to allow
Sinclair – already the biggest television operator in the country – to
acquire another network and grow even bigger.

If they succeed, Trump and Pai could permanently change the U.S. media
landscape. But their actions appear to be so clearly designed to benefit
one company – and Trump himself – that they could violate the FCC's own
mission as an independent agency.

*Tell the FCC inspector general: Investigate FCC Chairman Pai's actions to
benefit the Sinclair Broadcast Group.*

Last year, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner announced that the Trump
campaign made a deal with Sinclair to get favorable coverage for Trump on
the far-right network.1 Paying back the favor, once Trump entered the White
House, he met with Sinclair's CEO and talked about "potential FCC rule
changes" to help the company.2

But Pai's actions are just as disturbing. The FCC is supposed to be an
independent agency that serves the public interest – not media companies
and certainly not Donald Trump. Days after Trump won the election, then-FCC
Commissioner Pai had an off-the-record meeting with SInclair's CEO. *In the
two-week period before Trump took office, Pai met with Sinclair two more
times, once before meeting with Trump himself and once after.*3 Then, two
days after taking office, Trump nominated Pai as FCC chairman. Pai got to
work right away on a series of policy changes that directly benefit
Sinclair.

*Tell the FCC inspector general: Investigate FCC Chairman Pai's actions to
benefit the Sinclair Broadcast Group.*

Pai's most radical step has been to eliminate rules that would prevent
Sinclair from acquiring the Tribune Media Company. This is a mega-merger
that would leave Sinclair with an incredible 223 stations covering 72
percent of U.S. households.4 With the FCC's longstanding media ownership
rules out of the way, the commission will decide on the merger in the next
few months.

*Now, however, 15 senators have called for the FCC inspector general to
investigate Pai's actions, saying they “suggest a disturbing pattern of a
three-way quid pro quo involving Sinclair, the Trump administration and
Chairman Ajit Pai."*5 The senators have asked the inspector general to tell
Pai to recuse himself from all decisions related to Sinclair during the
investigation, and they want FCC staff to stop work on the merger until the
investigation is complete.

If Pai is changing the media landscape to benefit Donald Trump, we need to
know – and we need to stop him.

*Tell the FCC inspector general: Investigate FCC Chairman Pai's actions to
benefit the Sinclair Broadcast Group.*

*References:*

   1. Josh Dawsey and Hadas Gold, "Kushner: We struck deal with Sinclair
   for straighter coverage
   <https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-campaign-sinclair-broadcasting-jared-kushner-232764>,"
   POLITICO, Dec. 16, 2016.
   2. Claire Atkinson and Josh Kosman, "Sinclair is close to buying all of
   Tribune’s TV stations
   <https://nypost.com/2017/03/14/sinclair-tribune-merger-would-surpass-fcc-ownership-rules/>,"
   New York Post, March 14, 2017.
   3. Sen. Maria Cantwell et al., "Letter to FCC Inspector General David L.
   Hunt
   <https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/11152017%20Letter%20to%20Inspector%20General.pdf>,"
   Nov. 15, 2017.
   4. Ibid.
   5. Ibid.
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