Trump’s FCC Commissioner Threatens Comcast’s License Over ‘News Distortion’
Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened news outlets owned by Comcast and suggested the company’s “licensed operations” could be in jeopardy because of its immigration coverage.
On Wednesday, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung slammed MSNBC – a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast – and CNN over their coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Last month, the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in contravention of a 2019 court order barring his removal to that country. Abrego Garcia’s lawyer has challenged the deportation, which a federal court ruled “illegal.” Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling and instructed the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
So far, however, the Trump administration has refused, stating that the matter is up to the Salvadoran government.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karolin Leavitt was joined in the briefing room by Patty Morin, whose daughter was raped and murdered by an undocumented immigrant in 2023. He was convicted of the killing this week. Of the three major cable news networks, only Fox News carried the briefing.
“SHAMEFUL that @CNN and @MSNBC refuses to take Angel Mom Patty Morin as she recounts the terrible tragedy of how an illegal killed her sweet daughter, Rachel,” Cheung tweeted. Hours later, Carr quote-tweeted the post and stated:
Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular “Maryland man.”
When the truth comes out, they ignore it.
Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.
Abrego Garcia came to America illegally from El Salvador, was validated as a member of the violent MS13 gang—a transnational criminal organization—and was denied bond by an immigration court for failure to show he would not pose a danger to others.
Why does Comcast ignore these facts of obvious public interest?
Abrego Garcia, a husband and father of three, does not have a criminal record. He is nonetheless languishing in a mega-prison because the U.S. is paying for it.
