Presidents Have a Long History of Using the FCC to Silence Their Critics

[PAF]

Mises Wire
William L. Anderson
09/25/2025


The president was angry at the press, claiming that journalists were spreading “poisonous propaganda” about him. Using the Federal Communications Commission as a political weapon, he threatened the licenses of broadcast firms that employed people critical of him.

While Donald Trump likely is the first person to come to mind here, the opening sentences are not about him. They are, instead, about the spiritual standard bearer of the Democratic Party—Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Indeed, while president, FDR used the powers of his office to punish, bully, and intimidate print and broadcast journalists that dared to disagree with the New York patrician.

Roosevelt, unfortunately, did not simply engage in actions that violated the First Amendment to the Constitution, but he did so without shame, pushing the boundaries of what presidents could do when openly going against the letter and spirit of the law. For example, in historian David Beito’s The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights, he documents how FDR ran roughshod over the rights of Americans he believed were his opponents:

While most New Deal critics have focused on its economic policies or threats to property rights, Beito details how the Roosevelt administration used government power to subvert free speech, personal privacy, and other basic liberties. The book chronicles the extent of the administration’s overreach, which involved everything from shutting down newspapers to prosecuting New Deal opponents.

Beito illustrates how threats to property rights and civil rights in the New Deal could go together, especially for companies that wanted to broadcast over the air. Roosevelt told the newly created Federal Communications Commission to spike applications from radio stations hostile to the administration. They also discouraged anti-FDR broadcasts. In 1940, for example, the FCC blocked the purchase of a 15-minute segment by the antiwar America First Committee. Such efforts prompted companies to self-censor their content to avoid offending the administration. When an NBC commentator lightly attacked FDR on radio, an NBC vice president phoned the White House to say that the network would take him off the air.​

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Presidents Have a Long History of Using the FCC to Silence Their Critics | Mises Institute

President Trump’s latest anti-broadcast media actions are portrayed in legacy media as being unprecedented. While they definitely are outrageous, they hardly

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[jmdrake]

Mises Wire
William L. Anderson
09/25/2025


The president was angry at the press, claiming that journalists were spreading “poisonous propaganda” about him. Using the Federal Communications Commission as a political weapon, he threatened the licenses of broadcast firms that employed people critical of him.

While Donald Trump likely is the first person to come to mind here, the opening sentences are not about him. They are, instead, about the spiritual standard bearer of the Democratic Party—Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Indeed, while president, FDR used the powers of his office to punish, bully, and intimidate print and broadcast journalists that dared to disagree with the New York patrician.
<Good read>

Yes. Of course this is true. But the Trump apologists will still try to pretend, despite all evidence to the contrary, that it was merely the "Free market" that let to Jimmy Kimmel's temporary suspension and then follow up with "Well Democrats do it too" somehow implying that it's okay because "All is fair in love and war" and not realizing the fact that wars tend to ESCALATE over time. Trump is brazenly open about doing what past presidents did in secret. The free market spoke, ABC lost billions in value overnight, and Jimmy Kimmel was brought back. But the tyranny apologists can't accept that. What's funny is what Jimmy said wasn't even that offensive and it wasn't aimed at Charlie Kirk. It was aimed at Trump and the Trump administration.