Top Trump official ‘said the quiet part out loud’ about MAGA takeover

FCC Chair Brendan Carr speaks during the Chamber of Commerce 2025 Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., September 9, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

Brenda Carr, head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President Donald Trump, "said the quiet part out loud" during a recent discussion of the MAGA takeover of mass media at CPAC, per a new analysis from MS NOW.

Writing in a piece published Tuesday, MS NOW senior editor Anthony L. Fisher said that Carr "may be the most try-hard" out of all the "sycophants" in Trump's orbit, something he lived down to while speaking at last week's CPAC in Texas, where he "unwittingly admitted that the administration’s goal is the Orbanization of America, and that he takes pride in trying to make that happen." Fisher made reference to the far-right Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, whose consolidation of power was infamously helped along by wealthy allies acquiring media outlets and squashing negative coverage.

Carr brought up various examples of longstanding news outlets either getting their funding slashed or coming under the control of Trump's conservative allies, with Fisher noting that "because Carr is arguably the most eager-to-please attack poodle in Trump’s kennel, he couldn’t help but reveal what MAGA considers 'winning.'"

“Look at the results so far. PBS defunded. NPR defunded,” Carr said. “[Stephen] Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership. And soon enough, CNN is going to have new ownership as well.”

"It’s obvious why Carr, a hyperpartisan culture warrior, would consider these 'wins,'" Fisher wrote. "And his assessment matches the zero-sum Trump worldview: Somebody wins, somebody loses. Still, a more savvy player would have hidden the ball a little better. The defunding of PBS and NPR were done for nakedly political purposes (Trump’s executive order was literally called 'Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media'), but in crediting Trump for the upheaval at CBS and CNN, Carr blew off the flimsy facade that the changes were strictly made for business and journalistic reasons."

By way of acquisitions of their parent companies, Paramount and Warner Bros., both CBS News and, in the near future, CNN, have come under the control of Skydance's David Ellison, the son of ultra-wealthy Trump donor Larry Ellison. While Ellison has insisted that CNN will remain independent under his ownership, evidence strongly suggests the opposite. Editorial control of CBS News was handed off to right-wing commentator Bari Weiss after its Ellison takeover, with the ensuing changes pushing the network in a more MAGA-friendly direction — and sending ratings into a freefall.

In addition to Carr, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also recently suggested that CNN will be forced into a more Trump-friendly direction under its impending new ownership as well.

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