Brendan Carr’s localism hoax

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

Court wins against Trump administration censorship keep stacking up. But that’s certainly not stopping them from trying. Read on for more on the week’s press freedom news.

For Brendan Carr, localism is a red herring

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr loves to talk about localism — the idea that broadcasters should serve the needs and interests of their own communities — whenever he’s confronted about his abuse of the FCC’s powers to try to censor the news.

But as we saw last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he touted President Donald Trump’s “wins” against the media, localism is a red herring. As Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern wrote in The Intercept, without exception, Carr’s threats and investigations against broadcast news outlets involve segments on national news that offend Trump. The only time he involves himself with local news is to help consolidate ownership in the hands of conglomerates known for decimating local newsrooms.

Centralizing data is about surveillance, not security

FPF Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper joined National Public Radio’s “1A” program to talk about our lawsuit to find out how Trump’s 2025 executive order to eliminate “information silos” is really being used to create a massive centralized database to monitor the activities of Americans.

It’s sure to be abused by nefarious actors both inside and outside the government.

NPR, PBS ruling explains why all Trump censorship is illegal

A judge struck down the administration’s defunding of NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service as unconstitutional retaliation for airing content that displeased it.

We explained in a statement that the court is exactly right — it’s well established that the government can’t condition benefits on censorship it can’t achieve directly. That goes for PBS and NPR, but it also goes for Carr shaking down broadcast licensees, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denying access to reporters who don’t follow his unconstitutional rules, and more.

News isn’t contraband

What if the Nixon administration hadn’t asked a court to bar The New York Times and Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers, resulting in the seminal Supreme Court ruling further strengthening the law against “prior restraints”?

Rather than seeking such an extreme judicial remedy, what if President Richard Nixon had federal agents barge into the Times’ and Post’s newsrooms, seize the Pentagon Papers and all other national defense documents in the outlets’ custody, and refuse to return any of them, claiming they’re all criminal “contraband”?

Stern explained that a legal theory floated by the Biden administration in prosecuting journalist Tim Burke and now adopted by the Trump administration could lead to Trump or others censoring reporters by simply taking their stuff, without involving the courts at all.

Reform Section 702 of FISA

Section 702 of FISA, the surveillance law that allows the FBI and intelligence agencies to spy on Americans’ communications without a warrant, is up for renewal in Congress. The law has been repeatedly misused, including to monitor journalists and activists. Yet the Trump administration and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing Congress to reauthorize Section 702 without significant reforms. You can tell Congress to reject that effort with our action center.

We wrote about our recent conversation with four experts: Dell Cameron, an investigative reporter for Wired who covers privacy and national security; John Dickas, Sen. Ron Wyden’s deputy chief of staff; Trevor Timm, executive director of FPF; and Sean Vitka, executive director of Demand Progress.