Trump FCC Pick Sends Letter to Disney Over ABC News ‘Erosion in Public Trust’

Donald Trump has not taken the oath of office yet, but his nominees are already creating a bit of a dustup.

Incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr is setting the tone, having already sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger regarding reports on ABC News.

The letter, in part, stated, “Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly.”

Losing Trust

This letter comes only days after ABC News and Donald Trump came to a settlement agreement regarding comments made by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos regarding rape allegations against Trump.

Stephanopoulos has repeatedly asserted that Trump was found "liable" for rape.

Trump was never convicted of rape, as the jury found him guilty of sexual assault, but not rape, in the defamation suit brought by E. Jean Carroll.

His letter continued, “ABC’s own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public trust. For instance, ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to President Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million in attorney fees to settle a defamation case.

“The fact that a massive trust divide has emerged between local news outlets and national programmers like ABC only increases the importance of retransmission consent revenues remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local news operations and content that serves their communities.”

The letter goes on to claim that Disney has been shaking down local affiliates, asking for “onerous financial and operations” concessions.

The belief here is that Disney is doing this on purpose to promote its streaming services over “regular” TV.

As we all know, roughly 95% of all reporting on Trump has been negative by the mainstream media since Trump first took office.

With Trump coming back into office, most people expect that trend to continue, even though the American people have clearly pushed back on the way the mainstream media has been reporting, especially in regard to its bias for Biden.