As right-wing media outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, and One American News continue to push what many consider to be a pro-Russian and anti-American message in their broadcasts, the federal government is now making a concerted effort to determine if any of them have financial ties to Russia.
According to CNN, the investigation comes just days after punishing new sanctions were imposed by the Biden administration on Russia and even Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24:
Conducted jointly with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the FCC review covers more than just media entities regulated by the FCC’s broadcast licensing program, the person said. It also covers a vast array of telecommunications and infrastructure companies, including wireless providers, submarine cable operators and foreign telecom services that connect US-international phone calls, the person said.
It is not yet clear how many companies with ties to Russia the review may uncover, the person said, describing the initiative as a “top-to-bottom” effort to “identify the universe of licensees that have Russian ownership that should be on our radar.”
Fox News hosts have been extremely vocal in their support of the Kremlin, suggesting that the reason Putin invaded Ukraine is because he sensed “weakness” from President Joe Biden.
Here’s some of what right-wing media has broadcast regarding the Russian move on Ukraine:
Tucker Carlson: “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?”
“They have a president, and we don’t,” former Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani said on the conservative network Newsmax on Wednesday night. “Putin is prepared for this. Our incompetent [president] isn’t prepared for it.”
“How would you have avoided this conflict?” (Fox News host Laura) Ingraham asked Trump. The 45th president talked up his close relationship with Putin and decried the Biden administration’s “weakness.”
Of course, you can expect that Fox, Newsmax, and others will whine and suggest they’re being targeted because they present a conservative viewpoint. But if they have nothing to hide, there’s no need for them to be worried.
However, if any network of whatever political stripe does have financial ties to Russia, they need to be punished in the harshest manner possible.