I am looking out on the East River, New York City. Marty, my wife, and I lived in New York for a number of years and I had gone to the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) once. So when I needed to get rid of an old knee (bone on bone) I went back to see its impressive cast of orthopedic specialists. I have been pleased.

But this is about what makes HSS so good. The cast at HSS is an international mix blended with a number of second generation Americans and beyond. They have been talented and considerate.

The newer arrivals on our shores, strivers all, help make the operation run like a digital clock with a friendly face. The doctors and their various specialist assistants look like a cast from the United Nations. People come from all over the world for a surgical stay.

But this is not about medicine; this is about people. America offers liberty which makes strivers essential. Skill and motivation is a necessary pairing regardless of your birthplace. And when America is working best at least a modicum of humility and generosity are in the cultural stew. America is always among the top countries in voluntary giving.

When Americans go shopping we mostly look for lower prices. American shopping attitudes enabled Walmart, Amazon and a range of Dollar stores. We work hard and specialize in not wasting money when we buy goods and services.

Immigrants are often the human drive that makes this work. From lawns to construction to logistics and storage—well you name it. Sure, there are a lot of hardworking Americans in fourth and fifth generation families and beyond—many of their leaders are contractors, farmers, retail owners and the like and certainly not resting on their laurels.

America is also fortunate to have a prosperous mix of talent and research centers that lead the tech industry. Check out the last names; you won’t find many West European names. The Asian influence has been especially pronounced. All in all when markets and talent are allowed to work we do very well.

We are now throwing people out of our country—we should keep in mind the estimate of undocumented immigrants (3.5%). So as we enforce laws lets not intentionally or unintentionally think we who have been here a long time are somehow superior. I don’t know many multi-generational Americans who have learned a new language or new social patterns or had to establish themselves without help from a parent or grandparent or family name. Or, a network of friends accumulated from elementary to post-secondary schools and club settings.

Over the years I have bought a lot of stuff that immigrants have built or serviced. Rarely have I been disappointed with the work or the price. And since we are all offspring of immigrants—we shouldn’t act like we just won a merit scholarship.

So lets not misunderstand how America became great. Today’s families were at the beginning immigrants and those that came after 1788 were encouraged and protected by a profound Constitution. Yes, striving immigrants traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to find freedom. And from-time-to-time we have been especially fortunate to have a government leadership class that understood both the joys and burdens of freedom.

By all means we should control our borders, but we should make sure our legal processes provide the accused with fairness. And the worst thing to do is foment ethnic hostility.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

There you go again Sam.” No, this is not the famous “Play It Again Sam”, a Bogart quip from the 1942 classic Casablanca, but Ronald Reagan reacting to Sam Donaldson, his media critic, working for ABC News.

Reagan, of course, was President Reagan and he was deflecting a media critic. Look it up, he had a smile on his face. He rather enjoyed sparing with the news media. By the way, back then, the 1980s, there was no Fox News.  There was just the big three networks—CBS, ABC, and NBC plus PBS. All employed hundreds of journalists who tended to be Democrats. As it is said, “Democrats are more likely to go to journalism school.”

Looking back it is hard to fathom today’s vengeful tones of President Donald J Trump. Perhaps unfair, but looking back I see Reagan, a secure man with self-confidence, using his theatrical skills to pair with his political ones.

Trump, too, has an acting background. But he seems insecure—indeed brittle—although tough for sure. Tough can be helpful when it gives you inner strength, but when it turns to vengeful attacks from the human embodiment of the government, it is problematic. It induces fear. The motivation is to check, not balance.

I was, in a much earlier life, a radio broadcaster. The stations were not of much financial consequence, but in each of their communities they were part of the news media and each relied on the Associated Press (AP). Yes the same news organization that is now being penalized by the President because in its style book the Gulf on the western side of Florida is called the Gulf of Mexico.

Incidentally, the Associated Press is based in the United States. Its main competitors are headquartered elsewhere—Reuters in Canada and AFP in France.

Frankly, I don’t care what the Gulf is called, but I do care that the President has chosen to kick the AP out of the newsroom because it won’t use his newly named Gulf of America. Is this censorship by exclusion?

The attack on the AP goes along with his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair penalizing CBS and ABC at Trump’s direction or approval or both. And, President Trump by Executive Order claims he can now veto FCC actions.

Mr. President think back. On The Apprentice you  expressed choice and the families of those you choose not to salute didn’t sue you for disparagement. You, of course, were not the government so you were free to discriminate—indeed it was part of the show. Now that you are the government, you might want to spend an evening with old Ronald Reagan video clips.

Civility is important. Turning neighbors against each other is toxic. You have the ultimate platform—the “bully pulpit,” as former President Theodore Roosevelt called it. “Bully” as Roosevelt used it meant ultimate. He knew and you know that each day your voice will command attention—that you have an immeasurable opportunity to shape public opinion and affect the culture.

The ultimate verdict on your presidency will not turn on  tax or foreign policies, but on how you left the country. If democracy is irreparably damaged, that will be the lead in the history books. Recall: we are the UNITED States of America.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The Republican Party that was stood up by Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and more recently Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan no longer exists. It is no longer a Party where political rivalry evolves into strength because today’s default position is to punish dissent.

It is not premature to wonder how the Party’s voters might discern talent as Trump is succeeded. He is in his late 70s and cannot be reelected.

What will voters look back on? The pocketbook is the answer and tariffs as a vehicle to make America more prosperous is a bizarre policy. Tariffs to narrowly protect strategic industries might make sense but as an all-purpose tool, history and today’s stock market push back.

And to take on our most immediate neighbors by violating trade agreements while demeaning their leadership raises questions about competency that were asked by Republicans attacking Joe Biden.

Sure, America has a big stick, but as Teddy Roosevelt advised, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”. Trump’s stick is big, although getting smaller, but he seems incapable of speaking softly. Brow-beating Vladimir Zelensky as the cameras rolled was a definitional moment.

One of the strangest moves by the President is putting Elon Musk out-front. Musk is characteristic of the Tech Bros—smart but lacking in common sense and empathy.

Musk is as bad at politics as he is good at tech ventures. Earlier this week he called Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona “a traitor” because of his support for Ukraine. Kelly, a former naval commander and astronaut is a true patriot. Perhaps Musk, a South-African-American, needs a course in patriotism. A real patriot would now say “I’m sorry.” But that is not the Trump or Musk way. And as Vice-President JD Vance demeans Zelensky he needs a tutorial in courage.

The Trump beginning has been mostly a flood tide. He has projected strength. His energy level is outstanding. He has been decisive and often in ways popular with the MAGA crowd, insisting, for example, that we change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Vladimir Putin has been eating it up—ice cream with a cherry on top. Putin, an egregious imperialist, can cite Trump’s verbal ambitions to take over Canada, the Panama Canal and Greenland to justify his own conduct. And as negotiations to end the war in the Ukraine take place, Trump’s tell is a deuce of clubs in the upcoming card game.

Flood tides turn and low tides reveal. President Trump is now saying that we might have to endure a recession to get to his holy grail. Well if you are worth billions of dollars downturns are not all that difficult, but reflect on this: the Wall Street Journal has cited recent data that show 10% of Americans consume 50% of annual consumption. In short, the great majority of people have to work very hard to make ends meet.

Social issues have been very helpful to Republicans as Democrats have often turned on traditional morality. But, political history shows that kitchen table issues prove to be more pivotal.

So what does the low tide reveal: a political version of dead fish and rotting seaweed.

• Assaults on free speech
• Infantilizing Congress with Executive Orders that undermine it while empowering courts
• Appointing ill-prepared loyalists to key posts that need seasoned leaders
• Degrading America’s position as the most important global leader while trying to assert it
• Joining Russia, China, North Korea and Iran in symbolic UN vote
• Insisting the obvious did not happen including 2020 election results, invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and re-characterizing the attack on the Capitol as a patriotic event.
• Attempts to defy the law of economics (rising prices) using tariffs

Among America’s greatest assets is our well-established constitutional democracy and adherence to the rule of law. On the economic side our size, scale, dollar dominance, and centrality in the international supply chain come quickly to mind.

But America can be defeated. While our constitutional principles are profound, our human leadership is not.

I tell my Republican friends who have decided to stick with Trump and work within the Party to improve its future  that internal reform is likely a fool’s errand. Yes, it will eventually happen, but only after a blood bath.

And believing that friendship is way more important than politics, I enjoy talking to my friends who are Democrats. I reflect that we are spending way too much money on programs that have barely moved the dial after decades of trial. I add, to some discomfort, that attempting to re-work social standards through tradition busting laws will not work. Identity politics is just one more version of yielding to the loudest voices or the biggest bank accounts.

But let me not leave it there. To the glue-sniffers in the Republican Party, Trump won because President Biden  and his cast of reality deniers handed him the election. He should govern with some measure of humility. He will not; hubris eventually loses.

Now to a brief coda. Americans faith in the Supreme Court has suffered. The Court’s integrity can be revived if it reasserts our Constitutional foundation. Most importantly its upcoming decisions, interpreted, should be “Congress, get your house in order; you have important work to do.”

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Writing in 2025 comes with major challenges. In the radically changed communications world in which we live where is the tipping point? How many words on any given subject will be a turn-off? So here are some quick takes on disparate subjects that briefly made the headlines last week.

“Big, Beautiful Bill”

President Donald J. Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to add $2.5 trillion to the national debt over ten years. We need to subtract, not add, and adding to the national debt is not conservative.

Winner of Five Oscars

The film Anora just won five Oscars. One critic has described it as genre-bending. Parts of it are riotously frantic and funny. But for those who are considering watching it, the film also incinerates guardrails that have previously protected or deflected audiences from the visceral side of sex clubs.

Under the Bus

DJT did not get elected to end US support for Ukraine. Nor, to join in voting at the United Nations with the tyrannical set of nations targeting the US in world affairs—Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. This abrupt departure of geopolitical sense has and will continue to cause harm to the US and compromise Ukraine by shoving them not to the table but under a very big bus.

The National Pastime

Baseball is struggling. On the major league side, the Los Angeles Dodgers have a talent payroll of $303.9 million, while the Miami Marlins spend $43.63 million. The mean is $152.7. And comparatively, the game moves more slowly than other pleasant distractions.

Baseball’s leadership is now trying new gymnastic moves in an effort to protect the financial well-being of its product and its owners. Wake up; baseball needs fewer games and more intra-season suspense. The current schedule is for 162 games. My suggestion: divide the season up into four 40-game series, with the winners from those series playing each other in a year-end World Series face-off.

Crypto-Currencies

Finally, President Trump signed an Executive Order establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve. According to press reports, the president has a $20 million investment in cryptocurrencies.

If crypto-currencies are to receive the imprimatur of the White House, there should be a substantial effort to enlighten the public on this move and, more broadly, what role these currencies will play in our country’s financial strength.

Conclusion

Finally, here’s an invitation: Pile on, post to one or more subjects of interest, and tell the Spy what you would do.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

It’s really quite extraordinary. Congress is inert, impotent, and powerless. Five hundred and thirty-five aggressive men and women elected to the House of Representatives or the Senate to do good are doing almost nothing.

In the meantime, President Trump and his sidekick, Elon Musk, have deployed high-risk organizational moves against an organization’s most important asset: its people.

I actually led a government agency, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and found a mix of employees. Some were gifted and dedicated; others were just happy to have a job and did what was needed to keep it. And, of course, there were variations. But, on day one or for that matter day sixty-one my management team and I were still learning about the employees of the Commission which I chaired.

A large segment of FCC employees were engineers specializing in frequency-related science and communications applications from earthly to celestial. The networks they authorized and monitored have been the best in the world.

Musk’s DOGE team is involved in body count. I presume there is an employment floor based on dollar counts, and they are using a variety of techniques to reach it. One might ask how the floor has been established and whether employees are commodities that can be embraced or whacked according to numerical goals. But, back to Congress.

The Congress makes laws and appropriates the dollars to fulfill the intent. It then operates a bit like a board of directors using hearings and investigations to monitor compliance. There is a natural tension with the Executive Branch when Congress is doing its job right.

But Congress only does its job right when its leaders are patriots not showboats. Where are the most effective leaders in Congress? Where are the leaders who are willing to go beyond partisan volleys? And who are the leaders who believe the health of the United States of America is more important than their reelection? I ask these questions of the Republican contingent because the Democrats do not own the government and their criticisms are mostly brushed off as political.

If we have learned nothing in the last month we have learned that Trump and Musk do not want feedback, unless it is positive. We have learned that numbers not issues drive their daily work. We have learned that their immense egos and maniacal styles are in fact dangerous. And I expect when an audit of this saga is completed we will find that the most effective employees are no longer working for our government.

It is time for Republicans who have been elected to high office to show some backbone. I, for one, considered disruption necessary but what we got was chaos. Is this Congress unconcerned that its prerogatives are being canceled or undermined by chaos?

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

“The Tech Ecosystem that surrounds today’s teens is fueling loneliness.” Axios AM

The Thesaurus translates loneliness: as “deserted, forsaken.” I type just having come back from church, while recognizing that fewer and fewer of us return from churches or any religious venue these days. Many, not just teens, are more likely to get swallowed up by the “Tech Ecosystem.”

Today’s church service theme was “eternal happiness”. My wife and I were at Holy Trinity in Oxford, Maryland. In a broader sense the religious pulpit invites variations on this theme each week.

While religious leaders across the full spectrum of the world’s religions underscore eternal happiness, the Tech Ecosystem deals more pointedly with happiness. Google, for example, has a detailed profile of our “likes” and especially weaknesses as too many think their interface is a private affair. It now pinpoints advertising, as our online activity reveals our interests. And to promote happiness many of the ads sell pills.

Google and its peers are not selling eternal happiness—their operating system is organized around profit. Hourly and then daily and, well it all gets rolled up in the quarterly report to Wall Street.

The longer and more profound search should be for “eternal happiness”—a by-product, “internal happiness.” Of course, we can have brief moments of happiness without being concerned with continuity, but is that what we want?

And we can enjoy the fruits of friendship without considering it to be other than in the moment. But, is real friendship on offer?

While I am not a student of the world’s religions, I am led to believe by those who are that sharing our good fortune with others is thematically similar from faith to faith. In my life I have been fortunate to know persons who are generous, and not just at the end of the year when tax calculations are at hand. I cannot think of anyone in the generous category who seems lonely or feels deserted.

And reflecting, it has been my experience that having internalized generosity the downturns in life are much shorter. This is especially true for those whose faith provides an eternal buffer against both the shortness of life and its sometimes bruising offerings.

Most, I guess responding to the secular theme that all truth is relative, find themselves looking for some formula. After all, most prefer happiness to its opposite. The formula seems elusive, maybe it’s because we make it that way.

In the last several years I have seen “He Gets Us” commercials. The He is Jesus. Whether you think him divine or not his teachings lead to ultimate truths, not just situational ones. My take: only ultimate truths will overcome our quite understandable nausea with a culture that deploys artificial intelligence to overwhelm us.
The Counsel of the centuries is free.

Presidents Day

I can recall, although somewhat vaguely when George Washington’s Birthday was changed to Presidents’ Day in 1971. Some argued that Washington was a singular figure and should be recognized accordingly. Others thought all Presidents should be recognized
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Borrowing on sports, we have several Halls of Fame; most players are not recognized. And historians would certainly agree that all Presidents should not be spotlighted.
This year as Donald J Trump’s Vice-President suggests Trump is the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), we need to re-think our cancellation of history. Historical literacy has suffered as fewer are taught and social scolds seek to disparage former presidents because they succumbed in some way to the culture of their times.

George Washington was indeed a singular figure and once a year we should all be encouraged to find out why. Likewise, Abraham Lincoln. Nor should we let either celebration of the best to get entangled with days off from work.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

 

 

 

President Trump has decided to go all in. He has signed an Executive Order that will give him and successive White House occupants regulatory control of the independent agencies that are responsible for oversight and regulation of securities markets, communications, elections and trade.

Trump gained office by attacking President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Afghanistan debacle and the Southern border. The White House bungled both challenges. And rising prices were, for many, the swing issue.

Now, Trump is acting like a south-of-the-border autocrat who has taken over his country. America is not Brazil or Argentina or Columbia. America has an unparalleled record of stability and prosperity. Troubling, however, America’s success has turned on it. Humans often have a perverse relationship with success.

I am reminded of Neil Postman’s book: “Amusing Our selves to Death”. He expressed specific concern about “the trivialization of public discourse”.

In recent weeks I have written about the importance of free speech as the President seeks to limit it through the actions of the Federal Communications Commission. He has sued CBS and ABC among others contending they distorted the news.

In both cases his FCC Chair Brendan Carr has opened proceedings against them. The President takes them on and his regulatory chief twists their arm. In the case of the ABC litigation Disney, it’s owner, paid $15m into a Trump library account.

So, Mr. President, what is the problem you are trying to solve by ordering that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the FCC give you a veto over their actions?

Surprisingly, when I chaired the FCC, I could have spent much of my time traveling abroad, staying in nice hotels and enjoying excellent meals with interesting companions. In the newly democratizing countries of the former Soviet Bloc they were eager to learn how we regulated various communications media.

Those who had dissented in the post WW2 world of Communist dictators were eager to begin private sector ownership of the media and wanted to assure free speech. The emerging world of democrats—freedom loving patriots—wanted to know how the United States balanced the competing claims in regulating entities that had a license to own radio, television, telephony, and satellite businesses.

The overarching answer was the law which in 1934 created the FCC and specified it operate in the “public interest” and at the same time balanced political power by requiring Commissioners from both political parties.

Rather than leave you with heartfelt and often courageous stories from what had been the Soviet Bloc let me turn back to what President Trump is doing. He wants a cancel button. If he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t happen.

Trump has cowed the Congress, taken over the arts and now wants to rule the independent agencies. Whats left? The Courts for one, which are presiding over a number of challenges to Presidential power. And I like to think the Majority Leader of the US Senate, Senator John Thune, might eventually say “enough.”

Regarding the Congress. On paper the Founders delegated more power to it than either the executive or judicial branches. But rather than say in public what many Republican Senators say about Trump’s overreach in private, they specialize in a defensive posture that reveals an absence of integrity.

Understandably in the “honeymoon” period of a new President there is a reluctance to be critical. And it seems like a majority support his efforts to reduce the cost of government. But, the President having telegraphed his intent to flood the zone became abusive on the first day of the honeymoon.

If this assault on common sense government is not stopped by Congress, a pattern will kick in; each Party’s President will flood the zone and before long America will join the unstable governments and economies and become progressively less trustworthy and prosperous.

Ships have keels and rudders and many have sails; no less the Ship of State. It is time for what we think of as checks and balances to be used. Senator Thune and Chief Justice Roberts can become profiles in courage.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Today’s Democratic party is no longer shaped by realities. In a broad sense, today’s Party is still attuned to President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs.

The Great Society legislation was enacted in the mid-1960s during Johnson’s presidency. The promises: eliminate poverty and racial injustice. The cost in today’s dollars is estimated at $2T.

The results in many ways are now clear. Was there progress, yes. But over the decades we have learned that mostly the government can help those who will strive to better their lives.

We also learned, and it was not a great surprise, that massive government spending on social programs create dependencies that over time become prevailing political forces. At the risk of generalization, the dependencies are the foundation of today’s Democratic party.

The social programs and their associated funding while providing a “safety net” (Medicare, for example) also became a major source of today’s huge deficit. And the people that ran those programs—persons with utopian tendencies—kept pushing for more money, arguing that adding another program or layer would break through a wall of human resistance.

So, what do today’s Democrats do? Principally, its establishment leaders argue that Donald J Trump is evil and will, among other things, kill the programs that created the dependencies. This has not been a winning strategy. Afterall, Trump with all his flaws, won. Among other inconveniences, many who like Trump are former Democrats, and not from the high end of the demographic spectrum.

With apologies, I can get hung up on particular words. One of my favorites is “efficacy”. One definition: “the ability to produce a desired or intended result”. My emphasis: “result”. Or, in politics a result that satisfies a majority of voters.

A vivid example of a dramatic misalignment occurred in border security during the Biden administration. President Biden assigned the task to Vice-President Kamala Harris and there was a glaring lack of efficacy. Maybe the result was not desired. Maybe pressure groups which are a part of the Democratic ecosystem said “back down.”

An accumulation of results betraying intentions has kneecapped the Democratic party. The result: a large slice of the Party’s base has gone to the other side. As to the other side, Trump changed the Republican party regardless of resistance from the lingering and now disappearing Reagan wing of the Party. Trump doesn’t allow conservatism to get in the way of pragmatism.

President Trump is transparent in ways that earlier Presidents were not. He is out there. He holds frequent news conferences, often spontaneous ones. He says what is on his mind and the word “great” is a very active adjective.

In the Democratic party it is hard to know who can generate an interesting news conference. Certainly not its establishment figures whose comments betray anger and bewilderment.

Now for those who are looking ahead and wondering how many more words to the conclusion let me state it now.
America’s left-of-center party needs a founder. The Party’s bureaucrats are not equal to the job. The Founder will know the job and instinctively find the words and phrases necessary to begin to assemble a majority Party.

Formation will require both demolition and construction. Helpful pollsters will follow the votes. And especially that large slice of voters who self-identify as Independents. This is where the Party needs to go shopping to find targets of opportunity. Establishment Democrats will not be happy but where will they go? To Trump?

2025 promises Democrats a fertile opportunity. A Founder, to fill out a plan, will turn to policy entrepreneurs and insist that they use efficacy as a measure. Probe the world of the possible. The Founder will know how to use words and phrases to contrast the new way forward with the President’s direction.

Let me finish with a note of caution. America is closing in on a $40 trillion national debt. At almost 125% of America’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) this reality is a huge warning signal that voters are actually beginning to understand the cost to future generations.

The Democratic party more than the Republican one has been pieced together by domestic spending programs. Many of its most reliable constituencies are at least in part built around one or more dependencies. The teacher unions are a prime example. They represent more than 3.2 million members. They must be resold on efficacy.

Finally, although leaving until another day foreign policy, the new Democratic party will need to re-think cultural issues. I would suggest paying some attention to Nashville. In music, for example, Nashville has expanded beyond country music into indie rock, pop and to some degree hip-hop. It has become a cultural touchstone. Listen to the lyrics.

President Trump was groomed by NBC’s show Apprentice. Its producers understood his visceral appeal and then he decided to turn from political flirtation to action. This is not a circumstance that can be invented. But it is a circumstance that needs to be understood. I would suggest beginning with one immutable principle. The next Democratic president will not be a Washington insider, they are owned.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

My time was a generation ago. I chaired the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during the George HW Bush administration. Censorship was not on our priority list. Except: for protecting children from “indecent” content as was required by a law passed by Congress. The focal point was Howard Stern, whose morning show was broadcast by Infinity Broadcasting.

A Stern critic on the West Coast filed numerous complaints against the broadcaster because of Stern’s sometimes indecent repartee with sidekick Robin Quivers. In the end, Infinity was fined and several years after appealing, the fine was paid. And Stern, he ended up behind a subscription pay wall. His retort, he wished me dead in a 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley.

The FCC actions were taken only after all five Commissioners agreed that particular Stern routines were actionable. It took weeks for the five to concur. And while this action consumed hundreds of hours, its priority was relatively low as the Commission was concentrating on a range of radio frequency dependent technology issues that promised new services and a dramatic increase in telecommunication competition.

Now the new Commission chair, Brendan Carr, just appointed by President Trump, has decided to put the Commission in the business of news censorship. His actions are akin to becoming a campaign aide to the President. He has ordered the broadcast news networks to provide the Commission with transcripts and videos so that he can decide whether there was bias in reporting. Yes, the FCC’s Chair wants to be the ultimate editor.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, one of the FCC’s targets is the CBS show 60 Minutes and an interview it did with the Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The FCC is reviewing the 60 Minutes interview with Harris as part of its evaluation of Paramount Global’s proposed $8 million merger with Skydance Media. This scrutiny arises from a $10 billion lawsuit filed by President Trump against CBS alleging that the network deceptively edited the October 7, 2024 interview to favor Harris’s Presidential campaign.

I cannot think of a more egregious use of government power. The constitution guarantees free speech and in the United States we have dozens of news sources and outlets from local to international. In short, no speech is protected from competition. Carr knows this and that is what makes his actions thoughtless— no, cynical. When the Commission I chaired was confronted with Howard Stern’s transcripts, we were acting under a specific law intended to protect children. Carr is acting extra-legally.

Carr also knows that Shari Redstone who controls Paramount wants this action to go away for fear that it will interfere with her merger effort. CBS should have taken legal action to block the Commission’s actions; it hasn’t.

Again, going back to yesteryear, weighing  every word of a Howard Stern racy morning show to determine if his words, in context, were indecent was tedious, time consuming and in a larger cultural context fruitless. If the  FCC, led by Carr, is to become a news censor, its integrity will be compromised and in the final analysis a more principled broadcast news outlet will contest Carr’s actions. The courts will find them to be unconstitutional. In the meantime the “public interest” standard that defines FCC actions will have been carelessly undermined by subservience to a transient political power.

The right to free speech is not an Executive Order. It is not a vague law open to interpretations. It is constitutional and foundational. It is at its most elevated level of importance during periods of disruption. Maybe the DOGE element of President Trump’s administration should take a look at reducing costs by limiting or eliminating the FCC if they have enough time to perform unconstitutional acts.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.