Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr warned that broadcasting companies could lose their licenses over their coverage of the war with Iran. The threat came a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly singled out CNN during a briefing and said he would prefer to see the network under new ownership.
President Donald Trump has previously said openly that he managed to “reshape” the American media landscape by using pressure, regulatory tools and political leverage. Now, amid a war marked by weak public approval and unclear explanations from officials, the administration is intensifying pressure on journalists and warning news organizations of potential consequences.
During Friday’s briefing, Hegseth sharply criticized reporters and singled out CNN. According to him, “the sooner David Ellison takes control of that network, the better”. Paramount, Ellison’s company, is seeking to acquire the media holding Warner Bros. Discovery—the owner of CNN. Such a deal requires approval from the Trump administration.
Hegseth also criticized a CNN report which, citing several sources, said the administration had underestimated Iran’s readiness to block the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
CNN chief executive Mark Thompson said on Friday that the network fully stands behind its editorial work. “Politicians are obviously interested in declaring journalism false when it calls their decisions into question,” his statement said.
Carr, meanwhile, has emerged as one of Trump’s key regulatory allies and again raised the possibility of stripping licenses from broadcasters that, in his view, do not operate “in the public interest.” On Saturday he warned television networks spreading “hoaxes and distortions of the news” that they should “change course,” while reposting the president’s statement on Truth Social. Trump claimed that The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the “media” more broadly want the United States to “lose the war.”
In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Carr reaffirmed his position, saying that broadcast licenses are not a “property right.”
Tara Puckey, head of the Radio Television Digital News Association, sharply criticized the remarks. “Let’s be clear: what Chairman Carr is talking about is government control over the press,” she said. According to her, “journalists will not be intimidated by a bully with a briefcase,” and reporters should continue doing their job.
Formally, the commission does not issue licenses to national television networks. However, it does license local stations that broadcast their programming. Cable networks such as CNN fall entirely outside the FCC’s direct jurisdiction.
Communications law attorney Andrew Jay Schwartzman noted that revoking a license is an extremely complex legal procedure and “not a realistic mechanism.” However, every eight years broadcasters must apply to renew their licenses. That process, he said, has a “lower threshold,” though it can still drag on for years. At the same time, he emphasized that “licenses are not revoked or renewed based on the content of news programs.”
In his view, Carr’s “real lever of pressure” is the “implicit threat” of denying broadcasters the regulatory relief they are seeking.
FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the commission, has previously said the agency has no authority to revoke licenses because of content the administration dislikes. Yet the threat itself, she argued, “is the point.”
In her assessment, pressure alone may be enough to influence the decisions of media companies—especially at a moment when major merger deals are awaiting approval from federal regulators.
On Saturday, Trump posted a graphic on Truth Social in which he approvingly listed changes in the media landscape that had taken place during his presidency. Among them was the appointment of an ombudsman on issues of bias at CBS News—a step Skydance agreed to during the process of securing approval for its merger with Paramount.
The civil liberties group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression also condemned Carr’s warnings, calling them “outrageous.” In a statement, the organization said: “When the government demands that the press become a mouthpiece for those in power under threat of punishment, something has gone seriously wrong.”