“One of the things that will happen, as surely as the sun will rise, is that someone will lie: Your governments will lie to you. Sometimes unknowingly, but more often on purpose.” — Ben Bradlee
The late Washington Post editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee made that statement to a group of journalists at a 1990 conference in Prague. The Iron Curtain had fallen, freeing journalists to pursue the truth rather than being forced to shill government propaganda.
Any veteran news leader could make the same observation about the United States today.
Too often, government officials seem less interested in informing the public than in controlling what the public is allowed to hear.
We see it every day. Politicians and government spokespersons routinely avoid answering direct questions honestly. Their responses are often laughably unbelievable, carefully evasive, or redirected into attacks on a journalist’s intelligence, motives, or appearance.
At other times, the right to practice journalism is threatened.
For example, there have been repeated threats to revoke FCC broadcast licenses from television networks.
Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, the “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” guy, is again raising the prospect of revoking broadcast licenses.
According to reporting by New York Times journalists Jim Rutenberg and John Koblin, as well as other published reports, the FCC has ordered a sweeping review of ABC’s station licenses, an extraordinary move that critics say could chill free speech and weaponize federal regulation against a news organization.
The action followed President Trump’s public demand that ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel be fired for jokes targeting the president and the first lady. The FCC also has a beef with the guests on the network’s daytime program, The View.
That alone raises serious First Amendment concerns and the obvious danger of suppressing speech critical of the government in power.
Disney and ABC, however, signal they do not intend to quietly back down. The company says ABC has a strong compliance record and is prepared to defend itself in court. ABC attorneys argue that the government’s actions raise serious First Amendment concerns and appear politically motivated. Disney has reportedly retained prominent constitutional lawyers, suggesting the company expects a potentially major legal fight over free speech, government retaliation, and the future relationship between broadcasters and federal regulators.
But beneath the political fight lies a larger, perhaps more important story: traditional television is weakening. That matters to every community that still depends on local journalism.
The Golden Age of Broadcast Power Is Over
For decades, broadcast television dominated American life. Networks relied on local television stations to reach viewers. ABC, CBS, and NBC once paid affiliates to carry network entertainment and news because local stations were the delivery system into American homes.
Local stations were powerful. Profitable. Dominant.
Today, the relationship has reversed.
Local stations now pay networks substantial affiliation and retransmission fees. Meanwhile, networks increasingly bypass local stations by streaming on platforms such as Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, and Hulu.
The transmitter tower is no longer the sole source of program distribution. In fact, transmission towers are nearing obsolescence. Streaming platforms are not the preferred way to watch.
Viewers Left; Revenue Followed
The decline in television viewership is not merely theoretical.
Audiences, especially younger viewers, increasingly access information through streaming services, podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, social feeds, and on-demand video.
Linear TV ratings continue to decline.
Advertising revenue followed viewers out the door.
Cord-cutting devastated the traditional cable bundle, which once poured billions into local broadcasting via retransmission fees and advertising revenue.
The economic engine that funded large local newsrooms has been under relentless pressure for years.
As revenues declined, broadcast consolidation accelerated.
Fewer Owners, Fewer Voices
The television industry increasingly resembles a handful of giant ownership groups that control dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of stations across America.
The proposed acquisition of TEGNA by Nexstar Media Group exemplified this trend.
The logic behind these mergers is simple:
Scale is now viewed as necessary for survival.
But consolidation comes with consequences:
Fewer independent owners.
More centralized decision-making.
Shared content across markets.
Pressure to cut costs, including fewer experienced journalists.
Reduced localism.
In Southwest Florida, for example, viewers are now largely served by two dominant broadcast ownership groups.
That concentration would have been hard to imagine decades ago, when locally owned stations competed aggressively for audiences, for identity, and for community trust.
Today, economic pressures make maintaining genuine local independence increasingly difficult.
Why FCC Pressure Matters More Now
That is why the FCC fight matters beyond politics.
When media companies are financially strong and structurally independent, they are better able to withstand government pressure.
When companies are weakened by declining audiences, shrinking revenue, debt pressures, streaming disruption, and consolidation, regulatory threats carry greater weight.
Even if no licenses are ever revoked, the message still matters.
News executives hear it.
Corporate lawyers hear it.
Station owners hear it.
And journalists hear it.
The concern is not simply censorship through direct government action.
It is the possibility of self-censorship born from political intimidation layered atop economic vulnerability.
The Real Question
The larger question is no longer whether broadcast television will dominate American media.
It won’t.
The real question is what will replace it and whether that replacement will strengthen or weaken informed citizenship.
Local television news continues to play a critical role during hurricanes, emergencies, elections, investigations, and other public crises. In many communities, it remains one of the last large-scale local journalism operations.
Yet the economic model that sustained those newsrooms is rapidly disappearing.
As broadcasting’s influence declines, political pressure on broadcasters appears to be mounting, as in the faux FCC investigation into Disney/ABC.
That should concern anyone who believes journalism works best when government fears the press, not when the press fears government.
On that day in Prague, Bradlee offered hope to journalists working to uncover the truth and to promote transparency:
“Please never forget that the truth emerges. Sometimes it takes a long time to emerge, sometimes eight years. But it does emerge, and we must help.”
Bradlee might also have added that the truth only emerges if journalists and media companies refuse to surrender the pursuit of it.
That’s doing what is right for the public, not for those in power.