Gavin Newsom responded to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s weekend salvo against broadcasters and their coverage of the Iran War in a lengthy interview at SXSW.
On Saturday, Carr threatened broadcaster licenses and warned that news outlets should “course correct” before their renewals come up after the president blasted the media over their coverage of the Iran war.
He wrote on social media, “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”
The California Governor responded by calling it straight out of the “dictators’ playbook”
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“Did you guys just see what Brendan Carr just said? He said that he’s going to review all broadcast licenses unless they change their coverage of the war,” he said. “Putin’s proud, Orbán’s proud, Erdoğan… that’s the dictators’ playbook… this mass consolidation of the media [is] just total disregard of antitrust laws, crony capitalism… and this imperial Presidency. It’s just so wrong. Maybe have a candlelight vigil. We’re up against propaganda networks problem. That’s the primetime line-up at Fox. It is illusion rules. Facts don’t matter.”
Newsom was being interviewed in Austin, Texas by Vivian Tu, a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert, who hosts financial podcast Networth & Chill.
In the SXSW interview, Newsom also teased a Presidential run, using language slightly stronger than in previous interviews.
Tu asked said that the session was their “first date” and asked whether he would have a “second date” with supporters in November 2028. Referencing the open music of NBC’s The West Wing (“the Sorkin music”), Newsom said, “I do not believe we will have a fair and free election, as we know it, in 2028, if we don’t take back the House of Representatives in 2026. Nothing else matters.”
“It is the hard work that you did here in Texas in this primary where Democrats showed up in record [numbers]. Work that’s been done in 30 State races that we’ve flipped blue from red, the work that needs to be done between now and then to get Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries that gavel. If we can do that? Then you and I can go on a second date.”