An American Inquisition
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr recently wrote, “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.” Carr, with Trump’s explicit approval, is proposing an American Inquisition.
Carr’s threat of censorship is in response to Trump’s complaints that broadcasters aren’t covering the war in Iran fairly. The day after Carr issued his threat, Trump wrote that media outlets that publish “fake news” should “be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information.” This is a curious comment coming from a man who has no qualms about disseminating false information.
According to Trump and Carr, we should only be free to disseminate information that they regard as true. They want us to believe that disseminating false information is treasonous. And lest we forget, the maximum penalty for treason is death.
Human progress is replete with stories of people who have disseminated information that authorities and experts proclaimed false. Galileo, for example, was imprisoned for defending heliocentrism, which the religious authorities regarded as heresy. When Thomas Edison announced he intended to invent an electric light bulb, he was widely chastised by experts. One critic wrote Edison displayed “the most airy ignorance of the fundamental principles both of electricity and dynamics.”
Authorities and experts do not have a monopoly on the truth. Indeed, they are often wrong. However, when they have the power to silence those with whom they disagree, the truth may never be known.
During the Inquisition, Catholic authorities persecuted those who challenged Church dogma. Many alleged heretics were executed. Trump and Carr want to persecute those who challenge MAGA dogma. The results of an American Inquisition will be just as bloody and anti-human as the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages.