Media giants weaponize public sentiment in regulatory battles: ABC’s on-air campaign reveals structural media-state power conflicts amid Trump-era deregulation
Original framing: “ABC launches on-air campaign urging viewers to back network in Trump agency fights - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
Historically, media regulation in the U.S. has oscillated between periods of deregulation and re-regulation, often tied to shifts in political power and corporate lobbying. The 1996 Telecommunications Act, for instance, led to unprecedented media consolidation, a precedent that this narrative fails to acknowledge. The current conflict echoes earlier battles over the Fairness Doctrine and the role of the FCC in balancing corporate interests with public interest, revealing a cyclical pattern of media-state power struggles.
This narrative exemplifies how legacy media institutions leverage public sentiment to frame regulatory battles as existential struggles for press freedom, obscuring their own role in consolidating media power.
The conflict between ABC and the Trump administration is not an isolated incident but part of a historical cycle where media corporations and state agencies engage in a performative dance of power, each using the other to legitimize their authority. Cross-culturally, this dynamic contrasts with models like Japan’s NHK or South Africa’s community media, which prioritize public service over profit, revealing the contingent nature of the U.S. commercial media system. A trickster lens exposes the absurdity of a corporation positioning itself as a defender of truth while rallying public support for its own regulatory battles, highlighting the performative nature of its appeals. The solution lies not in partisan battles but in structural reforms—public funding, ownership caps, and independent oversight—that dismantle the concentration of media power and restore the public’s role as the ultimate arbiter of media legitimacy.