From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.
When Stephen Colbert announced that the government's increasingly aggressive stance toward late night meant
that he could not air a planned interview with a Democratic Senate candidate,
it sent chills throughout the media.
And then, this past weekend,
the chair of the Federal Communications Commission threatened
to punish news outlets over coverage of the war in Iran.
Today, my colleague Jim Rutenberg explains how the White House is trying
to shape media coverage of its agenda and just how far it's willing
to go in its crackdown on network television.
It's Wednesday, March 18th.
Jim Rutenberg, welcome back to the show.
Thanks so much for having me.
Jim, we've turned to you a few times on the show now
when we have questions about the media and free speech and government intervention.
And just this last weekend, in fact, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC,
threatened media companies by basically implying in a tweet
that he would revoke station licenses that ran with coverage of the Iran war
that he called, quote, hoaxes and distortions.
And between that and the dustups he's had with Late Night,