President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Communications Commission has called out the Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger over the way he has run ABC News, saying “Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly.”
Brendan Carr fired off a letter to Iger in the wake of ABC News’ more than $15 million settlement in Trump’s defamation suit against the Disney-owned news outlet.
“Dear Mr. Iger, Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly,” Carr wrote, according to a copy of the December 21 correspondence posted by journalist Brian Stelter.
Carr cited a recent Gallup poll showing just 31 percent of Americans gave a great deal or even a fair amount of trust in the news media — down from a high of 70 percent. “ABC’s own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public trust.”
Here's the full letter from incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr to Disney CEO Bob Iger about ABC's negotiations with affiliates – and about trust in media writ large pic.twitter.com/ARO0onozcy
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 24, 2024
ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum, as well as an additional $1 million in attorney fees to settle the defamation case.
Trump sued ABC News after host George Stephanopoulos repeated claimed on air that Trump was found “liable for rape” during a broadcast earlier this year. The New York jury in question found Trump liable for “sexual abuse” and cleared him of the rape allegation.
Carr’s letter to Iger focused primarily on ABC’s on-going negotiations with its affiliate stations, with Carr voicing concern over ABC’s growing power over its local stations, many of which provide local news to viewers. In particular, Carr said ABC”s financial agreements with its affiliates contains a fee structure that ultimately benefits Disney’s streaming services to the detriment of local stations and their ability to provide local news.
He noted that Americans still continue to trust local news over national news, and that the imbalance of power will harm the gathering of local news.
Trump has hailed Carr as a “warrior for Free Speech,” saying he will take on the big tech censorship regime and champion the rights of ordinary Americans.
ABC News showed clear bias against Trump multiple times throughout the recent election cycle.
During the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis repeatedly interrupted Trump with live fact checking, while failing to fact-check Harris even once.
One of Muir’s fact checks of Trump even proved to be false.
ABC News also oversees The View, whose co-hosts including Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg consistently use their platform to hurl insults at Trump and his supporters.
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