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New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Late Night Is Concerned About (the Truth Behind) Biden's Health
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. Our Sympathies, but … The news that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer naturally spurred late-night discussion on Monday. On 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart mocked those professing sympathy for Biden while at the same time using his condition to score political points. 'They used to say it's not the crime, it's the cover-up, but it's starting to feel like politics is all cover-up,' Stewart said. The Punchiest Punchlines (Games We Play Edition) The Bits Worth Watching John Oliver dissected the ways in which President Trump shapes coverage of his presidency, including using lawsuits and the F.C.C. as leverage, on Sunday's 'Last Week Tonight.' What We're Excited About on Tuesday Night Amid conspiracy theories circling about his photo of seashells appearing to be a threat against the president, the former F.B.I director James Comey will surely set the record straight on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.' Also, Check This Out Now that the 50th season of 'Saturday Night Live' is at an end, here are its most memorable moments, from political satire to straight-up silliness. Domingo!
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
F.C.C. Chairman Orders Inquiry Into Disney's D.E.I. Practices
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on Friday that he had opened an investigation into Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the latest attempt under the Trump administration to halt such efforts. In a letter to Robert Iger, the chief executive of Disney, Brendan Carr, the chairman, said the company's programs to increase diversity in hiring and to promote race-based affinity groups appeared to violate equal employment opportunity regulations. 'I want to ensure that Disney ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name," Mr. Carr said in the letter, which was sent on Thursday. 'For another, I want to determine whether Disney's actions — whether ongoing or recently ended — complied at all times with applicable FCC regulations.' A Disney spokesman said the company was reviewing the F.C.C.'s letter. 'We look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions.' Mr. Carr, a veteran Republican regulator, began his tenure as chairman of the F.C.C. in January by starting a sweeping campaign to scrutinize the media, attempting to root out allegations of left-leaning bias and policies scorned by the president. Last month, he began a similar diversity and inclusion inquiry into Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal. Mr. Carr has also said merger reviews undertaken by the agency will now include investigations of companies' D.E.I. programs. The investigations follow an executive order by Mr. Trump on his first day in office banning 'illegal and immoral' D.E.I. programs in the federal government. One day later, Mr. Carr announced that he would end any promotion of diversity and equity in the F.C.C.'s strategic plan, budget and economic reports. It is unclear whether the F.C.C., which usually hands out licenses to broadcast television and radio stations and plays the role of watchdog for cable television, has the power to punish a media company for its diversity initiatives. Mr. Carr has argued that the agency can apply a broad 'public interest' standard in scrutinizing companies like Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, as well as television stations across the nation. Mr. Carr's investigations could be challenged in court, F.C.C. experts said. 'This is all about bullying and intimidation,' said Andrew Schwartzman, senior counsel at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Mr. Carr's most powerful tool is his vote on the commission to approve mergers and acquisitions, he said. Mr. Carr, who was nominated by President Trump, has started inquiries since he took over as chairman into multiple news organizations, including PBS and NPR, accusing them of left-leaning political bias. He examined an interview that CBS's '60 Minutes' conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris, and he announced an investigation into the San Francisco radio station KCBS for its coverage of immigration enforcement actions. Mr. Carr has publicly agreed with the administration's promises to slash regulation, go after Big Tech and punish TV networks for political bias. Mr. Carr is reshaping the independent agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it as a political weapon for the right, telecommunications attorneys and analysts have said.
New York Times
06-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Federal Grant Program Opens Door to Elon Musk's Starlink
The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it would overhaul a $42 billion federal grant program aimed at expanding high-speed internet to the nation, including easing some rules that could benefit Elon Musk's satellite internet service, Starlink. The program will be revamped to 'take a tech-neutral approach' in its distribution of funds to states, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement. The program's rules, which were created during the Biden administration, previously favored broadband lines made of fiber-optic cables attached to homes. 'The department is ripping out the Biden administration's pointless requirements,' Mr. Lutnick said. The Commerce Department will also remove regulatory and other barriers that slow down construction and connection to households, he added. Congress created the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program in 2021 to extend broadband to the most remote areas of the nation. The Commerce Department came up with standards and rules for states and territories applying for the funds — including the preference for fiber-optic broadband, which provides the fastest internet service speeds. Mr. Musk, who is a close adviser to President Trump and helping to lead a government efficiency initiative, is chief executive of SpaceX, the rocket company that makes Starlink. Starlink uses low-altitude satellites to beam internet service to dishes anywhere on the planet and then to devices. It serves nearly five million subscribers worldwide and was used by emergency responders late last year in North Carolina when communications networks shut down after a hurricane. The Commerce Department's internet program has not yet disbursed any funds, and Republicans have used it as an example of a program that was slowed down by red tape. Some have accused the Biden administration of unfairly blocking Starlink from the grants and say the satellite service can immediately serve some of the most remote areas of the nation. In 2023, the Federal Communications Commission rejected Starlink's application for almost $900 million in subsidies in a separate rural broadband program, saying the company failed to show it could meet service requirements for the funding. Brendan Carr, then a Republican F.C.C. commissioner and now chairman of the agency, opposed the decision and said the action had put the F.C.C. on a 'growing list of administrative agencies that are taking action against Elon Musk's businesses.' Mr. Musk's business interests — which also include the electric-car maker Tesla and the social media company X — have prompted concerns about potential conflicts of interest as he makes important decisions in Washington. On Wednesday, some public interest groups expressed concern that Mr. Lutnick's plans to change the broadband program could directly benefit Mr. Musk. 'Fiber broadband is widely understood to be better than other internet options — like Starlink's satellites —- because it delivers significantly faster speeds,' said Drew Garner, a director of policy engagement for the nonprofit Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for details on the plan. Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
New York Times
12-02-2025
- Business
- New York Times
F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into Comcast's D.E.I. Practices
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has ordered an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Comcast, the parent company of NBC News and Universal Studios. In a letter sent to Brian Roberts, Comcast's chairman, on Tuesday, Mr. Carr said that the F.C.C. would look into D.E.I. practices broadly at many companies it regulates, starting with Comcast. 'I want to ensure that your companies are not promoting invidious forms of discrimination in violation of F.C.C. regulations and civil rights laws,' Mr. Carr said in his letter. Comcast confirmed it had received Mr. Carr's letter. 'We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the F.C.C. to answer their questions,' Jennifer Khoury, a spokeswoman for Comcast, said in a statement. 'For decades, our company has been built on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.' Greg Watson, a spokesman for Mr. Carr, did not respond to a request for comment. The investigation into Comcast is the latest in a series of moves by Mr. Carr to bring media companies under regulatory scrutiny. Appointed chairman of the F.C.C. in November by President Trump, Mr. Carr has ordered investigations into PBS and NPR, examined an interview that '60 Minutes' conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris and announced an inquiry into the San Francisco radio station KCBS for its coverage of immigration enforcement actions. While Mr. Carr has ordered investigations into several media entities, the inquiry into Comcast is the first probe focused solely on D.E.I. His investigation into PBS and NPR focused on corporate sponsorships of news programming, and his inquiry at CBS News is focused on a 'news distortion' complaint. Mr. Carr said in his letter he was starting his D.E.I. push with Comcast because the company covers 'a range of sectors regulated by the F.C.C.,' including cable and high-speed internet. Tom Wheeler, the former chairman of the F.C.C., said in an interview that the recent investigations by the agency fit into a pattern of using the commission's power to further Mr. Trump's political agenda. 'It's clear that what is going on here is — whether it be Comcast and D.E.I. or NPR and PBS, or CBS and the '60 Minutes' interview — is how can you use the coercive authority of regulation to accomplish the goals of your master and mentor, Donald Trump?' Mr. Wheeler said. Anna Gomez, a Democratic commissioner on the F.C.C., said in a statement in response to Mr. Carr's investigation into Comcast that the commission should not stoke 'partisan culture wars' 'It is time we return to our core mission — closing the digital divide, fostering innovation, and protecting consumers,' Ms. Gomez said.
New York Times
09-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's Blueprint for Bending the Media Has Nixon Written All Over It
Voters had delivered the president to the White House for a second term, disregarding news about arrests and indictments of former aides accused of breaking the law to help keep him in power. Now, the newly emboldened president and his top officials had a message for the reporters who covered it all so aggressively: It was payback time. As senior officials blasted journalists as 'arrogant elitists' out of touch with 'real America,' the administration threatened the licenses of local TV stations carrying the major networks' newscasts and moved to slash funding for the 'liberal-slanted' PBS. The president was not Donald J. Trump. He was Richard M. Nixon. The scandal he thought he had outrun, Watergate, would ultimately force his resignation. And his brazen anti-press moves, which initially appeared to cow journalists, would stall in an onslaught of revelations about his role in covering up wrongdoing in his West Wing. That dark chapter in media history is suddenly relevant again, as the second administration of President Trump resorts to a heavy-handed approach to traditional journalists that has all the hallmarks of his predecessor's attempted press crackdown some 50 years ago. Mr. Trump and his aides have called reporters for major news outlets liars; falsely accused them of accepting government payoffs for favorable treatment of Democrats (a misrepresentation of agency spending on news subscriptions); and made a show of reducing their prominence in the White House and Pentagon briefing rooms while giving more space to friendlies from newer, right-wing alternatives. Mr. Trump has coupled those largely symbolic and by now familiar moves with an attempt to use the levers of government against traditional journalists that goes well beyond his first-term attacks. He and people close to him have threatened to use the Federal Communications Commission to punish the broadcast news networks, to defund PBS and even to prosecute journalists for their coverage of the investigations and criminal cases against Mr. Trump and his supporters. 'We have not experienced this kind of raw, blatant use of government power for ideological purposes since Nixon,' said Andrew Schwartzman, a longtime public interest lawyer specializing in media regulations. 'In many ways,' he said, 'the threat is greater,' coming with a harder edge against a weaker press corps. Mr. Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has told reporters that 'the White House believes strongly in the First Amendment.' But, in her very first briefing, she had warned, 'We know for a fact that there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that.' Much of the early action has emanated from the F.C.C., which is an independent agency with a bipartisan board whose chair is selected by the president. Mr. Trump named a longtime Republican commissioner, Brendan Carr, to the post in November, calling him a 'warrior for free speech.' Already raising Nixon-style threats to tie television-station license renewals to government determinations about content — which the agency has some leeway to do under regulations that still require licensed broadcasters to serve the 'public interest' — Mr. Carr has revived previously dismissed complaints against the three traditional broadcast networks, and opened an investigation into PBS and NPR. An inquiry into CBS played out in public in recent days when the network cooperated with the F.C.C.'s request for information relating to the editing of a '60 Minutes' interview last fall with Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump had accused the network, in his own multibillion-dollar lawsuit, of deceptively altering the interview to boost Ms. Harris's presidential campaign, which CBS denies. Mr. Carr has said the outcome of the inquiry could factor in his agency's review of a pending merger between CBS's parent company, Paramount, and Skydance, creating a division between him and Democrats on the commission. 'This is a retaliatory move by the government against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable,' Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, a Biden appointee, said in a statement. 'It is designed to instill fear in broadcast stations and influence a network's editorial decisions.' Representatives for Mr. Carr did not respond to messages requesting comment. CBS's agreement on Wednesday to supply the F.C.C. with raw transcripts and video of the Harris interview also raised concerns among First Amendment lawyers and media critics that the inquiry was already working as Ms. Gomez warned it would. Al Sikes, a Republican chair of the F.C.C. during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, wrote in The Talbot Spy, a local news site in Maryland: 'CBS should have taken legal action to block the commission's actions; it hasn't.' CBS has said that it was acting in accordance with the law and that the transcripts showed the interview was properly handled. But its compliance added to public fears that the network and its parent company were joining a trend of apparent supplication by media companies suddenly facing a presidential administration showing no shyness about retaliation against perceived enemies. Paramount is also considering striking a deal with Mr. Trump to end his CBS suit, which would follow recent decisions by ABC News and Meta, the owner of Facebook, to agree to multimillion-dollar settlements with him. 'It is a little bit dispiriting and worrying to see the press respond in this way to this president at this particular moment,' said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The settlements, though not great in number, raise questions about whether the traditional press will have the wherewithal to 'stand up to power,' he said. These questions arose in the Nixon era, too, and for good reason. After coming under sustained White House pressure, the CBS founder, William S. Paley, agreed to end the new practice of providing 'instant analysis' of presidential speeches — basic punditry that often drove Nixon to distraction — and canceled a program critical of the Vietnam War. As Nixon allies challenged the licenses of television stations owned by The Washington Post, its publisher, Katharine Graham, called the star Watergate correspondent Bob Woodward to her office, seeking reassurances about the reporting he was pursuing with his co-writer, Carl Bernstein. 'The administration's power — and anger — were at their greatest after the landslide election, and we were at our weakest,' she recalled in her memoir. 'We were scared,' she added. The Post was often unmatched in its reporting on Watergate. For all the White House anger over the coverage of the scandal, many media outlets initially treated it gingerly. Of course, in the end, The Post, CBS and the rest of the media were vindicated when the scandal came into fuller bloom and they covered it with distinction. Yet the major newspapers and broadcasters were the only game in town then. And polls showed Americans overwhelmingly trusted them. Those numbers plummeted over time, as the media made its share of missteps and its credibility came under sustained conservative attack. Now, Mr. Trump has an entire cable network — Fox News — whose opinion programs are populated with open fans as well as an army of online info-war combatants whose promotion of his version of reality receives extra amplification on social media platforms, including Elon Musk's X and his own Truth Social. Even while applying pressure to traditional journalists, Mr. Trump is promising to 'stop all government censorship.' But in that case, he seems to have in mind the tech platforms, which, he has complained, faced unfair pressure from the Biden administration to moderate content about his 2020 election lies and public health information during the Covid pandemic. That conflicting approach to old and new media is clearly visible in two hearings to be held by Trump allies on Capitol Hill. One, to be overseen by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, will explore 'systematically biased content' on PBS and NPR. The other, scheduled by the House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman is Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, will investigate the Biden administration's 'censorship campaign' against the platforms and 'upcoming threats to free speech.'
