Following President Donald Trump’s 2024 landslide election, the incoming Trump administration has the opportunity to hold the legacy corporate media accountable for blatant falsehoods and bias by focusing on how antitrust enforcement, how broadcasters treat streaming media, and broadcast spectrum allocation.
While Americans are used to leftist bias from the legacy media, the 2024 elections reached new levels of intentional lies, distortions, and blatant advocacy for Vice President Harris’s failed Presidential campaign. While Republicans have long complained of media bias, they have governed by granting government handouts and regulatory favors to Big Media oligopolies.
Fortunately, Trump was able to win by appealing to independent media including massive podcast appearances with Joe Rogan, the Nelk Boys, and gaming streamer Adin Ross.
Legacy Media and the Biden Administration attempted to use the government to shut down independent media under the guise of fighting “disinformation” via groups like the News Media Alliance and Trusted News Initiative.
The incoming Trump Administration has an opportunity to hold the Corporate Media responsible for its bias, lies, and distortion by eliminating its regulatory privileges and enforcing antitrust laws — forcing it to compete on an even playing field with independent media.
The bias and lies reached new heights this election. CBS’s 60 Minutes deliberately manipulated its interview with Kamala Harris and then smugly refused to release the transcript. On the eve of the election, NBC’s Saturday Night Live sprung on the American people a last-minute skit with Kamala Harris, in clear defiance of NBC’s requirement to afford all candidates equal air time.
Disney-owned ABC has been among the worst Big Media offender. Its late night host Jimmy Kimmel was on the verge of tears after Trump’s victory, saying “it was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for health care, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech.”
Disney’s daytime leftist therapy show, The View, has been nonstop anti-Trump propaganda, culminating with their endorsement of Liz Cheney as Kamala’s Attorney General. And its ABC World News Tonight anchor, David Muir, fact-checked Donald Trump at the September 10th debate for a correct statement about crime rates while ignoring 21 false statements Kamala Harris made.
The Trump-led Republican party may finally be ready to take on the legacy media by no longer granting it a free ticket to profit from bias. Three ways that Trump can take on the Corporate Media either come from the tech world or are being successfully applied to Big Tech.
Reinvigorate Antitrust Laws to Protect Competition and Consumers
Big Media forces consumers to subsidize their liberal political content. For example, Warner Media bundles TNT Sports with CNN. Disney bundles ABC News with ESPN. As a result, those who want to purchase sports programming must also pay for left wing news channels. More vigorous antitrust enforcement will prevent these corrupt bundling and tying agreements.
Currently, a federal antitrust case against a Disney/Warner/Fox conglomeration is poised to deter these sort of illegal conduct. In Fubo v. Disney, A federal judge recently found that would likely “substantially lessen competition and restrain trade.” This case is also vitally important as it challenges the Old Media’s attempt to conquer online streaming. The Trump Administration will have an opportunity to support the case as it moves forward.
Of course, antitrust laws themselves are not tech related, but the high profile antitrust cases against Google, initiated by the previous Trump administration, have blazed the trail on fighting this type of market domination.
Auction Legacy Media’s Broadcast Spectrum
The extent of Big Media’s bias is possible mainly because ABC, CBS and NBC have free access to valuable public airwaves that are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Tech entrepreneur and Trump advocate David Sacks has tweeted: “The major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) operate on free licenses of public spectrum in exchange for requirements to serve the public interest. They no longer do, and this is an obsolete model anyway. The spectrum should be auctioned off, with the proceeds used to pay the national debt.” SpaceX’s Elon Musk responded that this is a “great idea.”
Stop Broadcasters from Treating Streamers Like a Blank Check
ABC, CBS, and NBC profit by making the pay-TV Providers (i.e. cable, streaming, and satellite services) pay exorbitant fees to retransmit their free, over-the-air TV signal, which then gets passed on directly to consumers. Federal law requires Big Media to negotiate “retransmission consent” fees in good faith. But as Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who is slated to become Chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in the new Congress, recently tweeted: “It’s time to end the far left’s hegemonic control over broadcast television. It’s time to end retransmission consent.”
The FCC, which administers retransmission consent rules, has an opportunity to take the first step towards reform. Satellite TV provider DirecTV recently filed a complaint with the FCC, alleging Disney’s ABC is negotiating retransmission consent in bad faith. The Trump FCC should move forward on that complaint in the new year.
By winning a historic landslide victory and earning a clear mandate from the American people, one thing is clear – Donald Trump has the opportunity to change how our government works. By using the power of his government, Trump can end the Legacy Media’s gravy train which has enabled increasingly worse bias to fill the airwaves.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.