A lot of Americans don’t have the time or the energy to look past the mainstream media. That is one of many reasons this country is in the mess it is currently in. Conservative radio stations exist and conservative news stations exist–they are slanted, but less slanted than the mainstream media. In America, control of the media is important.
Yesterday, Real Clear Politics posted the following headline, “FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr: FCC Creating A New Shortcut For “Soros-Backed Group” To Buy Hundreds Of Radio Stations Before November Election.” Just for the record, the FCC is composed of a majority of Democrat Commissioners.
The article reports:
Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr voiced concerns about a decision to fast-track the sale of hundreds of radio stations owned by bankrupt firm Audacyt to the Soros Management Fund — before the 2024 election, during a hearing with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
In June, The New York Post reported:
Left-leaning billionaire George Soros is trying to recruit the Democrat-controlled Federal Communications Commission to help fast track his takeover of the nation’s second-biggest radio network.
Soros, 93, pumped $400 million into Audacy in February, a network which reaches 165 million monthly listeners and includes a handful of conservative shows from hosts including Sean Hannity, Dana Loesch, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and Erick Erickson.
But their influence is likely to be muted if the billionaire takes over and imposes his agenda, as has happened with other media acquisitions.
Considering the programming, is it any wonder George Soros is trying to fast track this takeover before the election?
The article at RealClearPolitics quotes a House Oversight Committee hearing:
CARR: There is nothing about this transaction that is out of the ordinary. It’s the type of thing that we see all the time, and the FCC has a process for this.
The full commission itself has never signed off on a shortcut like this. What we usually do is we require people to file a petition with us. We bring in national security agencies, they can review the foreign ownership. It’s probably no big deal here, but we review that foreign ownership. and then we vote. Here, they’re trying to do something that’s never been done before at the commission level.
LANGWORTHY: Yeah, I must say commissioner, I am extremely alarmed at what’s happening with this transaction. This is very unprecedented. Looking at the facts, it seems that the administration is giving a left-wing billionaire, who is a major donor, a close ally, one of the chief funders of all of the efforts in their dark money, a free pass to take control of hundreds of local radio stations, flooding the airwaves with leftist propaganda, and I think it’s blatant.
What would a normal proceeding look like commissioner here for the transfer of ownership in this nature?
CARR: If you follow the process that the FCC adopted back in 2016, there would be a petition ruling. We’d bring in national security agencies, they would review the excessive foreign ownership that’s involved here. They would figure out if there’s any issues — again, probably not, but we don’t know yet.
We haven’t reviewed it. That could take 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 months. Then the full commission would step in and decide up or down on the merits of the transaction. It looks like we got the cart before the horse this time.
LANGWORTHY: It certainly appears that way from my perspective, local radio and local media are the lifeline of communities like those in my district, much as small-town America and they, offer a diversity of ideas and viewpoints that aren’t available elsewhere.
And it’s that diversity of ideas at the left, including, you know, partisan very activist billionaires, George Soros, like to stifle, and they like to silence, and I’m deeply disturbed that this administration has fast-tracked a process to hand over these stations to one of their most loyal funders and make no mistake, they know exactly what they’re doing and they welcome the result.
This would not be good for America.