How State Power and Corporate Media Are Teaming Up to Silence Dissent

They don’t have to pass a law. They don’t have to hold a vote. They don’t need a court order. They need a willing corporate megaphone, a regulatory body with appetite, and a politically obedient narrative to hide behind. What we watched this week—Brendan Carr cheering as broadcasters yanked a late-night host, Sinclair replacing that slot with a mandatory tribute, and elected officials calling for punishment rather than accountability—is not an isolated freakout. It’s the playbook. It’s authoritarianism in slow, methodical motion.

Let’s be blunt about what happened and why it matters.

First: the mechanics. Brendan Carr, who helped write the FCC chapter of Project 2025 and now occupies the chair at the agency, publicly applauded local broadcasters for pulling a show. Large broadcast groups—Nexstar, Sinclair and others—moved quickly to preempt programming, demand apologies, and even call for financial tributes to political organizations. Jimmy Kimmel got yanked from airwaves. His time slot was offered up as a place for “remembrance” for a public figure. Corporate media announced it publicly and loudly. Elected officials and right-wing media hailed it as “doing the right thing.” The net result: a critic is silenced, a narrative is enforced, and power is displayed.

Second: the playbook isn’t new. It’s rehearsed. Project 2025 laid out a roadmap for conservative control over institutional levers—personnel, regulatory pressure points, and capture of message channels. The fact that someone who contributed to that blueprint now heads the FCC is not random. It’s implementation. When the regulator who once described more aggressive oversight as “restoring balance” applauds corporate preemption, that applause is part of the plan, not a mistake.

Third: the actors are playing different roles under the same script. Corporations like Sinclair and Nexstar supply the megaphone and the logistics—station networks, national reach, “must-run” segments, and centralized editorial decisions that local anchors are required to read. Politicians and regulators supply pressure and plausible cover. Media personalities and right-wing influencers amplify and weaponize outrage to demand punishment. The result is theatrical but effective: you don’t need to criminalize dissent if you can make corporates punish it and regulators tacitly bless the punishment.

Fourth: don’t fall for the smokescreen. They will dress this up as “community values,” “accountability,” or “respect for victims.” That’s the cover story. The emotional bait—a tragic death, the predictable outrage cycle—is the tool. It warps the fact pattern into a cudgel. “We must do something” becomes permission to punish. “We’re protecting the public” becomes a way to justify silencing critics. That’s the pattern you see when employers fire clerks for refusing political flyers, when local superintendents are smeared for telling staff how to protect themselves from doxxing, and when corporate broadcasters demand apologies to political movements.

Fifth: the legal veneer is thin. There is no tidy legal basis for criminalizing viewpoint or for ordering corporate speech. But law isn’t the only lever. Fear of regulatory hassle, threats of fines, potential headaches with affiliates and advertisers—these are powerful incentives. When the FCC chair says “we’ll look into it,” or when a major affiliate group publicly pressures a network, executives quickly choose expediency over principle. That’s how power bends corporate behavior without changing statutes.

This is dangerous for one simple reason: control of narrative equals control of consent. When the state—via regulators—and corporations coordinate, dissent dies in the open. You aren’t just losing a comedian’s monologue; you’re losing the normal churn of contestation that keeps public life honest. Critique becomes dangerous, satire becomes costly, and ordinary people learn that crossing the official line can cost you a job or a reputation.

Make no mistake: this is not about feelings. It’s about structure. It’s about a system that now has the tools and the temperament to convert political grievances into enforced obedience. That’s the definition of the playbook: manufacture outrage, weaponize corporations, legitimize punishment with regulatory teeth, and normalize enforced tribute.

But there are practical realities and responsibilities in all this. Public outrage is understandable. People are grieving, angry, and scared. I do not condone violence. Criticism, condemnation, and even righteous fury are one thing. Doxxing, cheering violence, or threats are another. We have to hold ourselves to a standard that is strategically effective and morally unimpeachable. We want power to be checked—not by trading one set of brutal tactics for another.

So what do we do?

1. Name it. Call it what it is: coordinated pressure. Don’t let them gaslight the conversation into “decency” or “values” when the mechanism is intimidation and control.

2. Demand transparency. Call for a public accounting: which affiliates made which decisions, who contacted whom, and what conversations did regulators have with media executives? Public oversight matters more now than ever.

3. Hit them where it hurts—legally and financially. Push for congressional hearings, support independent journalism that will investigate ownership structures and “must-run” directives, and pressure advertisers to take a stand when their brands are being weaponized.

4. Vote with your wallet and your attention. Cancel subscriptions, shift viewership, and support independent outlets. If they monetize coercion, stop funding it.

5. Organize and litigate. Support legal challenges that protect journalists and broadcasters from coercive regulatory overreach. Back civil liberties organizations that defend free expression and push back against politicized enforcement.

6. Insist on better norms inside institutions. Corporates are cowardly, not evil. They follow incentives. Change incentives and you change behavior. Pressure boards, demand internal ethics reviews, and don’t let them hide behind “community values” when they act as political enforcers.

This is not a moment for passive outrage or performative signaling. This is a moment for organized, principled resistance. Call your representatives. Back nonpartisan bodies that defend free speech. Fund reporting that will name the deals being struck behind closed doors. Support the people and institutions on the line who will not bow.

They’ve started running the playbook in public now. That’s a gift: it exposes the mechanics. Use the exposure. Push back smarter, louder, and legally. Don’t let them make obedience into policy by decree.

They want obedience. We need to give them something else: accountability.