Askold Lozynskyj
Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, threatened the American Broadcasting Company and its parent Disney with licensing issues over comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s comments regarding the killer of Charlie Kirk. Kimmel had suggested that the killer may have been a MAGA acolyte. ABC suspended Kimmel. There was an uproar about the First Amendment and freedom of speech. There ensued much discussion. Apparently it was decided that even hate speech was protected. But, inciting violence was not. Trump suggested that the FCC go after others like “The View” and Jimmy Fallon. VP Vance said that Carr was joking. Kimmel was not inciting violence and so he was reinstated. Donald Trump was not pleased. Nevertheless, essentially a happy ending.
Not quite! While threatening ABC and its parent Disney, Mr. Carr has shown no inclination towards threatening FOX News. In the last week alone FOX commentator Brian Kilmeade who aside from commenting on many programs, also has his own, called for the execution of the mentally deficient homeless if they refuse to accept medication. Another and perhaps more prominent FOX luminary commentator Jesse Watters called for bombing the United Nations. Brian Kilmeade and Jesse Watters are perfectly normal commentators at FOX.
It should be pointed out that in both instances, Kilmeade and Watters were not simply spouting hatred, which would be protected under the First Amendment. They were inciting violence against the mentally deficient homeless and UN personnel who had been accused by Watters of deliberately staging a malfunction of the escalator at the UN when it was being used by the Trump entourage. President Trump made the same accusation.
FOX News is replete with such characters as Kilmeade and Watters. President Trump is not particularly pleased, however, with FOX and its owner Rupert Murdoch. The reason according to Trump is that FOX does not go far enough. There appear to be other networks such as Newsmax which have picked up the slack, but FOX remains the most popular.
FOX does carry the news but in every case it is adulterated. Its mantra is “fair, balanced and unafraid” which is repeated quite often even by such relatively innocuous real journalists at FOX as Bret Baier. Some of the other players are Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Laura Ingraham, John Roberts, Martha MacCallum, Harris Faulkner and others. FOX used to have Pete Hegseth and Jeanine Pirro but President Trump gave them jobs in his administration and its departments.
There is a round table discussion program entitled “The Five” which consists of four conservatives and one token liberal. The liberal, mostly not too prominent since he/she must take abuse, is simply shouted over by the other four. FOX insists that the program is balanced. In fact, it’s a circus.
The media in America is invariably accused by Trump and others like him of being liberal and biased against him. Some of the so-called liberal media such as CNN and MSNBC, as well as
CBS and ABC, have taken steps to appear objective yet remain faithful to the fourth estate paradigm of seeking the truth.
The same is true of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, pretty much. To appear unbiased and I suspect to ensure success at Amazon, Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post even abstained from endorsing a candidate in the last presidential election. The Wall Street Journal retains a right wing inclination which is evident in its opinion page if not its editorials, but the news is presented objectively. The New York Times is the best as far as I am concerned, but I read it only for its news coverage. I never read its editorials or opinions.
That brings me back to FOX News. I have been exposed to state run news agencies during Soviet times as well as when I traveled throughout Russia in the early 2000s. The Soviets were and the Russians are experts. In fact, Russia has a nongovernmental structure on human rights which is a part of the government. The world has to accept that. The press is a governmental structure.
FOX News today is that type of a network. Certainly it is a network for news but invariably the news is presented with a slant or it is ignored. Frankly, I do not fully understand the predilection except that its purpose is to make President Trump look good.
Laura Ingraham is a FOX commentator. She is an attorney by education if not by profession and a conservative writer whom I once enjoyed reading. She is a disturbing case in point. She has a program on FOX entitled The Ingraham Angle. After Trump completed his speech at this year’s opening of the UN General Assembly she opened her program with a banner celebrating Trump as the Truth Sayer. Her obeisance to Trump was frankly disgraceful since I listened to Trump’s speech and I was sickened. Aside from flouting the rules, he went off on such ridiculous rants as “I have always been right” and “global warming is a hoax”. I changed the channel with the words, “Laura Ingram has lost her mind”. I did not say that Donald Trump has lost his mind because that happened a long time ago.
State television in a democracy is an aberration and worse it’s an attempt at forging something very disturbing. Think about it!
September 25, 2025
