Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif) wants to ban conservative news from being broadcast to U.S. troops but says networks such as CNN and MSNBC are acceptable forms of information.
During an interview on MSNBC, host Katie Phang expressed several concerns about the ongoing Dominion voting system lawsuit against Fox News, asking if Congress should get involved.
“Have there been any discussions in Congress about congressional oversight, regulations, and the FCC getting involved? Phang asked. “I know we all respect the First Amendment, Congressman, but should there be some type of gatekeeping that happens so that this doesn’t happen again?”
In response, Swalwell suggested banning Fox News from the military bases may be in the cards. However, he did acknowledge the idea might not go over well since the network is popular among service members.
“Nothing makes them feel more like home than their access to American television programming,” Swalwell said. “I don’t want to get in the business of telling troops what they can and cannot watch. But, if you have a news station that a court is going to rule is, in its evening hour, you know, perpetuating dis- and misinformation, I don’t know if I disagree with VoteVets, who was saying that we need to take a look at, you know, how this is being broadcast to our troops.”
"Nothing makes [our troops] feel more like home than their access to American television programming, and a popular channel is Fox News," says Democrat Eric Swalwell.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 11, 2023
"We need to take a look at how [Fox News] is being broadcast to our troops." pic.twitter.com/tzJeTfyEoU
Swalwell referenced a recent call from the political action committee VoteVets to ban Fox News on military installations.
FOX hosts' election lies and disinformation splits the ranks, hurts unit cohesion, and weakens America's national defense. They must be removed from all TVs on military installations NOW.
— VoteVets (@votevets) March 6, 2023
Share if you agree! pic.twitter.com/1a6WiYB0hV
The Democrat continued to say that a threat from Congressional oversight may scare the network just enough for “Fox News to clean up” any programming that did not align with the Left-wing narrative.
Several Fox News hosts are under fire for pushing the idea that Dominion interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Democrats and the liberal media are also outraged that Fox News host Tucker Carlson was given exclusive footage of the January 6 Capitol Hill protests.