News Distortion: The New Fake News

In 2015, the term “fake news” exploded into the American lexicon. The term meant different things to different people, but most importantly—and most destructively—it became a way for candidate, and, later, President Donald Trump to dismiss and discredit unfavorable reporting. “Fake news” became a rhetorical tool for delegitimizing journalism amongst a large swath of the electorate. Given the political value of the fake news concept for the first Trump administration, it should come as no surprise that the second Trump administration has figured out how to add some new wrinkles to its assault-on-journalism playbook. Enter “news distortion.” Spearheaded by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission Chair, Brendan Carr, the term news distortion comes from some heretofore little-known FCC regulations that have existed since the 1960s. These regulations, which apply exclusively to broadcast licensees, stipulate that any documented evidence that a broadcast station intentionally engages in “rigging” or “slanting” of news can result in fines or the loss of a broadcast license. These regulations sound reasonable. Broadcasters are, after all, licensed by the federal government to serve the public interest. Yet they are an anomaly in a First Amendment tradition that has provided considerable protection for intentional falsity. Consequently, the news distortion rules have mostly gathered dust in an obscure corner of the American media regulatory framework. Until recently. 

[Philip Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy and the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.]