If you want to know how conservatives should think about media ownership policy, a good starting point is to head opposite the people who think that President Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr are “autocratic,” “fascist,” and engaged in “mob-style government.” Those are charges levied in recent comments from Free Press, a left-wing nonprofit opposing the proposed reforms to the FCC’s rules capping ownership of broadcast stations.
A strong conservative consensus exists in favor of reform or outright repeal of the ownership limits. Exhibit A is a letter signed by leaders of 18 conservative organizations, including Heritage Action, the Center for Renewing America, Americans for Prosperity, and Americans for Tax Reform. This represents a broad coalition from MAGA to the Reaganite right.
Reading the list of commentators reveals a 'who’s who' of the irrelevant and Trump-hating.
A few voices now feign uncertainty about where the White House or FCC will land. But conservatives don’t need a crystal ball. When every liberal and left-wing advocacy shop in Washington locks arms on one side of a policy debate, the right answer is almost always the opposite.
The liberal groups are not powerful in themselves — Democrat FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez has already sent strong signals that she opposes repeal, and in all events, her single vote cannot stop commission action as long as Republican appointees remain united. But the position of Gomez and her outside allies on the left on a controversial policy question should give any conservative pause — why would we agree with the other party?
When the commission last invited comment on this topic in August, TVTech reported, “a large number of filings from unions, consumer groups, civil rights groups, church groups, liberal organizations, free speech advocates and others have come out strongly opposed to any change to the current 39% ownership cap.” Indeed, reading the list of commentators reveals a “who’s who” of the irrelevant and Trump-hating.
The unions, for instance, include the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians and the News Guild. The Writers Guild of America, which also opposes the reforms, recently attacked President Trump for a supposed “un-American … unprecedented, authoritarian assault” on the First Amendment, complete with the line: “We don’t have a king, we have a president.” These are the advocates of maintaining the caps on media ownership by Nexstar, Sinclair, and others.
Another joint FCC filing included a laundry list of left-wing groups: United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Hispanic Federation, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network separately weighed in, warning that reform would be contrary to its mission of “economic justice, political empowerment, and fair representation in all aspects of public life.” The horror!
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This isn’t the FCC’s first time down this path. When the first Trump administration floated reforms along these lines, 21 Senate Democrats and one independent (Bernie Sanders) sent a letter opposing any further flexibility under the caps. This has been liberal orthodoxy for decades.
Hollywood labor unions, left-wing pressure groups, Al Sharpton, Bernie Sanders — these are not normally reliable predictors of good policy. Broken clocks may still be right twice a day, but this is not one of those moments. Trump administration leaders should be deeply skeptical when they’re asked to be on the same side as all of these people.
The Trump administration has allowed 54 South African immigrants into America after claims that white farmers are allegedly being killed in the country — and one man is very unhappy about it.
“The New York Times is saying that President Trump is saying to white Afrikaners from South Africa, ‘I’ll give you refugee status.’ So we’re bringing in white Afrikaners who we don’t know if they’re criminals, we don’t know what they went through in the legal process in South Africa,” Al Sharpton said on MSNBC.
“But people right here in Newark, we’re going to assume they’re all criminal,” he continued. “It is as blatantly double standard as one can get.”
“I don’t understand how 54 people have caused this big of a dustup when we’ve watched hundreds of thousands walk over our border for four straight years. This whole situation, it’s baffling to me. But it’s not baffling in terms of there’s so much stirred up racial division, and anything that appears to benefit white Christians in any way can be spun into, ‘Well, this is racism,’” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Jason Whitlock Harmony.”
“They are looking, as you said, solely based on race,” T.J. Moe agrees. “We have rigged up this society to believe that white people cannot possibly be victims, so if we allow these white victims into America, now that destroys our narrative.”
“I think that’s what they’re looking at here. They can’t possibly demonstrate any sort of empathy. These are white people. Doesn’t matter that they’re only 7% of the population over there and that they’re being murdered and that President Trump calls it a genocide, none of that matters. It only matters that they’re white,” he continues.
“These South African farmers,” he adds, “there’s only 7%, but I think they own something like 75%, 80% of all the farmland in South Africa and produce like 95% of the goods. They’re incredibly productive people, and so these are refugees that you would want here.”
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Dr. Jamal Bryant, a liberal black preacher at a Baptist megachurch in Georgia, is angry that Target stores have dropped the secular left’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative. And so, along with Al Sharpton, he has urged black people to boycott Target.
Bryant is leading a deceitful political scam while insisting he is a man who seeks to help black people. DEI has never been about that. Instead, proponents of DEI play the race card, using black Americans to advance what amounts to a godless agenda. Worse, in pressuring Target to restore DEI, this man of the cloth is undermining the gains Christians have made in getting the retailer to remove homosexual-themed children’s clothing from their stores.
Should Bryant’s boycott grow enough to overwhelm complacent Christians, it could possibly provide Target a new political lifeline (and excuse) to reverse course on DEI.
As many will recall, back in 2023, Target made national news when conservative influencers and media outlets reported how the national retailer was using customer profits to target children with a marketing campaign promoting pro-homosexual-themed apparel. This was bad enough by itself.
What added insult to injury was the way Target seemed to be riding a wave of some organized propaganda campaign pushing drag-queen story hours — where perverse men dressed in women’s clothing would read books to children — often while behaving in lewd and suggestive ways.
As a result, a tsunami of public outrage ensued, and an untold number of Americans immediately decided to boycott Target stores.
It made a difference: Target got the message that the bulk of its consumers reject the woke agenda. In June 2024, the retailer announced that it would no longer sell children’s apparel as part of its “Pride Collection.” Even though Target still sells merchandise that promotes the homosexual lifestyle, the removal of this apparel from the children’s departments is nonetheless a victory for morality.
This victory was followed by President Donald Trump’s executive order against DEI in January, which prompted Target to join other major companies — including Walmart, McDonald’s, and Ford — in announcing it would end several corporate DEI initiatives.
This is when the left-wing preacher Bryant stepped into the breach to stage a counter-boycott that attempted to mimic what conservatives had done.
Protesting against the corporate practices that include selling homosexual-themed paraphernalia to children is an odd move for a man with the title of preacher — one would hope he is in agreement with biblical values.
In fact, Bryant has never publicly denounced Target’s previous practices. Yet, he’s chosen now to speak up and fight for Target to restore DEI. And so has Twin Cities Pride, a homosexual activist group, which also lashed out at Target for ending its DEI initiatives.
Seeing that Bryant is taking the same side as Twin Cities Pride, it’s hard not to conclude that Bryant’s passionate drive to pressure Target to reinstate DEI is motivated by his full-throated agreement with the far left’s secular agenda.
There’s more proof of this.
Not long ago, Bryant appeared on a podcast and engaged in a heated exchange about political and spiritual matters with Pastor Mark Burns, a black conservative pastor who has gained fame for his support of President Trump.
The takeaway from some online viewers was that Bryant did not align with the standard scriptural interpretation that the Bible supports only traditional marriage and opposes abortion.
To make matters worse, Bryant seems to be making inroads with Target CEO Brian Cornell. In a symbolic gesture of agreement, Cornell reached out and met with Al Sharpton because of Bryant’s boycott.
It’s important to note that Cornell was also CEO of Target back in 2023 and had initially refused to back down from selling rainbow-colored onesies for infants and T-shirts that say, “Pride Adult Drag Queen ‘Katya,’” “Trans people will always exist!” and “Girls Gays Theys.” He was so adamant about pushing the homosexual agenda on kids that, in response to conservative backlash, he told the press that he thought it was “the right thing for society.” Cornell also admitted that this agenda is directly linked to Target’s DEI initiatives: “The things we’ve done from a DEI standpoint, it’s adding value,” Cornell said.
Based on these comments, can there be any doubt that Target would love to restore DEI, including its children’s “Pride Collection”? Of course not. But the social pressure against it is finally having an effect. That is, it was until Bryant and others began to get louder.
Let there be no doubt: Should Bryant’s boycott grow enough to overwhelm complacent Christians and conservatives, it could possibly provide Cornell a new political lifeline (and excuse) to reverse course on DEI. If that happens, you can bet that all perverse children’s merchandise will return to store shelves.
Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at Chronicles Magazine.
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