AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

The Trump administration is escalating threats against media outlets. In a post Sunday, President Trump said news organizations should face treason charges for disseminating false information. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has also threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Carr wrote online, quote, “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,” unquote.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut blasted Carr, saying, “This is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled. A truly extraordinary moment. We aren’t on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. We are in the middle of it,” Senator Murphy said.

This all comes as allies of President Trump consolidate their control over several major media outlets, Paramount Skydance poised to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN and HBO. Paramount’s CEO is David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, a close Trump ally.

Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made this comment about CNN.

DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH: Or more fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do: hold the strait hostage. CNN doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.

AMY GOODMAN: At the Oscars Sunday, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made this remark about CBS, which is now owned by Paramount.

JIMMY KIMMEL: We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage. As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, not to be confused with Bari Weiss’s The Free Press, which is now owned by Paramount, and she’s head of CBS News. His news article — his news article is headlined “Warmongers Come for the Media.”

Craig, talk about the significance of this moment. Senator Murphy says, this, we’re not on the precipice or the edge of totalitarianism; we’re in the midst of it.

CRAIG AARON: Thank you, Amy.

Yeah, this is a very clear abuse of power. The idea that the chairman of the FCC would be, you know, threatening broadcasters with losing licenses for not echoing Trump administration propaganda, the idea that the defense secretary is out there cheering on a megamerger so that Trump cronies can be put in charge of the media to get more favorable coverage, this — we really haven’t seen anything like this in recent memory. And it has been going on throughout the Trump administration, just a complete abuse of power by FCC Chairman Carr, performing, really, for an audience of one, that is Donald Trump, jumping on his every utterance to saber-rattle, to threaten broadcasters.

And really, the threat is the point. They want these companies to be afraid. They want them to change. And they are, sadly, too often willing to do it. In order to push through mergers, in order to get special favors, in order to guarantee their other divisions big fat government contracts, they’ve shown a willingness, from CBS on down, to warp and alter coverage to make it more favorable to the Trump administration. And as we’ve seen, whether it’s lawyers, universities, media companies, when the bullying works, you just get more and more bullying.

AMY GOODMAN: Craig Aaron, he’s talking about threatening news organizations with treason. Presumably, this also means the journalists within them. This is extremely serious, because if you are convicted of treason, you face death. You have, for example, Hegseth responding to journalists covering the death of the service members in the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, saying that this is unfair to cover this. You have, when a reporter asked President Trump on Air Force One to talk about the deaths, for example, of the six service members, he goes, “Next?” He doesn’t want to answer this question. Craig?

CRAIG AARON: Yeah, this is really unbelievable. You’re talking about basic coverage of the most important and serious issues, and you have an administration that wants to hide and warp coverage of their own incompetence, of their own failings, of their own crimes, like these that you covered earlier in the program and the deaths of hundreds of schoolchildren. They don’t want the U.S. media covering this story, and they are showing that they are willing to threaten the use of regulations, of government policy, of changing owners in order to push those media companies into silence, in order to have journalists question what stories are they going to cover, wonder if their bosses are going to back them up when they do serious reporting on the crimes of this administration, whether that’s kidnapping people and sending them to other countries, whether that’s launching a war. The most serious stories that we need the newsrooms with the biggest resources covering, the Trump administration is signaling, “You better think twice.” And unfortunately, the billionaire owners of these companies are signaling back, “If you’ll give us favors, if you’ll give us mergers, we’re willing to do your bidding.” This works because the CEOs — 

AMY GOODMAN: Five seconds.

CRAIG AARON: — have backed off. And they’re going to keep doing it until these media companies start standing up.

AMY GOODMAN: Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action. We’ll link to your new article, “Warmongers Come for the Media.”

We’ll be live-streaming our 30th anniversary event at democracynow.org next Monday. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.