Trump specifically called out the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal for reporting over the weekend that \u201cfive US Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia.\u201d Citing two unnamed US officials, the Journal noted that \u201cthe tankers were hit during an Iranian missile strike on the Saudi base,\u201d and that the planes were \u201cdamaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US president called the story \u201cfalse reporting\u201d without substantively refuting its content<\/strong>. Trump wrote that four of the refueling planes are \u201cin service\u201d and one \u201cwill soon be flying the skies\u201d\u2014none of which is inconsistent with the Journal\u2019s reporting (emphasis added).\n<\/div>\n Trump\u2019s latest threat against the free press came after his Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, threatened Saturday to pull the broadcasting licenses<\/a> of media outlets he accused of \u201crunning hoaxes and news distortions.\u201d Carr did not provide specific examples.<\/p>\n The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.<\/strong><\/p>\n When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after (sic) in the face of hoaxes and distortions<\/strong>, there is something very wrong. It means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can\u2019t allow that to happen (emphasis added).\n<\/div>\n Following Carr\u2019s threat, Trump posted a self-aggrandizing infographic bragging about how he has been \u201creshaping the media\u201d into his own version of a state-run media that would make even Joseph Goebbels jealous<\/a>:<\/p>\n Not to be outdone, the cosplay soldier-wannabe masquerading as the non-existent Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, also declared his displeasure with the media\u2019s reporting on the Iran war when he expressed his desire to see CNN turned into a branch of Trump\u2019s state-run media—to be run by David Ellison, the son of AI Tech Bro<\/a> Larry Ellison (via CommonDreams.org<\/a>):<\/p>\n \u201cThe sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,\u201d said Hegseth, pointing specifically to CNN\u2019s report<\/strong> Thursday that \u201cthe Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran\u2019s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation.\u201d<\/p>\n David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance, which is poised to acquire CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery after a lengthy bidding war with Netflix. The deal still must receive regulatory approval from the Trump administration<\/strong> and in Europe, and some state attorneys general have vowed to closely scrutinize the agreement (emphasis added).\n<\/div>\n Maybe it\u2019s just me, but I\u2019m thinking that regulatory approval by the Trump administration isn\u2019t going to be all that hard to get, regardless of how \u201cclosely\u201d some state AGs \u201cscrutinize the agreement.\u201d Case in point: Carr has already expressed his approval of the CNN takeover, telling CNBC last month that he thought it was a \u201cgood deal, and I think it should get through pretty quickly.\u201d Shocking, right?<\/p>\n Donald Trump has never been a fan<\/a> of the First Amendment rights to Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech. Throughout his 2016 campaign and continuing throughout his first term, Trump routinely played the worn-out \u201cfake news<\/a>\u201d card against any media outlet that reported stories that failed to massage his massive ego. Declaring them to be \u201cthe enemy of the people\u201d\u2014Joseph Goebbels would be so proud<\/a>\u2014Trump threatened to silence his critics in the press through the use of libel lawsuits and by revoking the broadcast licenses of major networks.<\/p>\n Trump began setting things in motion<\/a> for the creation of a state-run media in the first year of his first term in office when he gave Sinclair a sweetheart deal that would have allowed the media giant to have control over a large majority of US households. In October 2017, his FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai\u2014a holdover from the Obama administration\u2014reinstated an old rule<\/a> meant to pave the way for a $3.9 billion TV merger between Sinclair and Tribune\u2014allowing the company to own enough stations to reach over 70% of US households.<\/p>\n Pai also issued a second decision that eliminated the requirement<\/a> for TV stations to maintain local studios in the markets where they are licensed, thus opening the door for \u201clocal news\u201d to be controlled in places like Washington, DC.<\/p>\n Combined, these decisions would have given Sinclair control of TV news in approximately 72 percent of US households. Besides the fact that this consolidation ran in direct opposition to the FCC\u2019s mission of promoting competition, diversity, and locality of the public airwaves, there was a conflict of interest involved because Sinclair had close ties<\/a> to Trump, Steve Bannon, and Breitbart News at the time.<\/p>\n So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.<\/p>\n — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018<\/a><\/center><\/p><\/blockquote>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freethepeople.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HDZCyCfW8AAlidg-746x1024.jpeg\")
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