News: 1771856815

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

O say, can you see: FCC pushes patriotic programming for US 250th

(2026/02/23)


The head of the Federal Communications Commission has called on broadcasters to start the day with the Star Spangled Banner or the Pledge of Allegiance to celebrate the US's 250th birthday.

Brendan Carr made the recommendation when he launched the Pledge America Campaign, itself an adjunct to the Salute to America 250 Task Force launched by the Trump White House a year ago.

Carr's [1]statement [PDF] notes: "Task Force 250 invites citizens to have a renewed love of American history, experience the beauty of our country, and ignite a spirit of adventure and innovation that will raise our nation to new heights over the next 250 years."

[2]

He took the opportunity to remind broadcasters of their "longstanding public interest obligations" and their "key role in educating, informing, and entertaining viewers and listeners all across America."

[3]

[4]

The Pledge America Campaign calls on them to "lend their voices in support... by airing patriotic, pro-America content that celebrates the American journey and inspires its citizens by highlighting the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the Trump Administration today."

Carr added: "I am calling on broadcasters to pledge to provide programming that promotes civic education, national pride, and our shared history."

[5]

How might they do this? Well, the Star Spangled Banner and Pledge of Allegiance are just for starters. Carr also suggested "short segments, or full specials specifically promoting civic education, inspiring local stories, and American history." And he suggested airing music by the nation's "greatest composers, such as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, or George Gershwin."

John Philip Sousa's Portuguese father was born in Spain and his mother in Germany, while both Copland and Gershwin's parents were born in the Russian Empire. Ellington's grandparents were formerly enslaved.

Carr also suggested broadcasters provide daily "Today in American History" announcements, "highlighting significant events that took place on that day in history."

[6]FCC guts post-Salt Typhoon telco rules despite ongoing espionage risk

[7]FCC kicks off 'Space Month' with vow to fast-track satellite licensing

[8]FCC plans to kill Wi-Fi on school buses, hotspots for library patrons

[9]FCC dives in to sink Chinese grip on undersea internet cables

"I look forward to broadcasters showcasing its inspiring history by taking the Pledge and fulfilling their public interest mandate to serve the needs and interests of their local communities as America's 250th birthday celebration marches on," said Carr.

Notably, Carr didn't refer to public broadcasters. These have had their federal funding cut and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [10]voted to dissolve itself last month after losing more than $1 billion in support.

[11]

Quite how much quality programming Carr can expect to see delivered as a result of his clarion call is debatable. Quality TV, and even rubbish TV, takes time to produce.

Still, there's always AI. What better way to celebrate the birth of America and how far it's come than seeing a six-fingered John Hancock signing the Declaration of Independence, before running the copy through an [12]AI content detector to discover the document is 98.51 percent generated by AI. ®

Get our [13]Tech Resources



[1] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-418890A1.pdf

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZyHvHvsz1Yu8dTPhR2fVwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZyHvHvsz1Yu8dTPhR2fVwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZyHvHvsz1Yu8dTPhR2fVwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZyHvHvsz1Yu8dTPhR2fVwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/24/fcc_salt_typhoon_rules/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/07/fcc_satellite_licensing/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/05/fcc_to_kill_wifi_school_buses/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/17/fcc_china_subsea_cables/

[10] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/05/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-board-dissolves

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZyHvHvsz1Yu8dTPhR2fVwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodiecook/2024/07/04/ai-content-detectors-dont-work-the-biggest-mistakes-they-have-made/

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/


Task Force 250 invites citizens to have a renewed love of American history

that one in the corner

> content that celebrates the American journey

But only the bits that Trump approves of:

[1]The Trump Administration Is Intentionally Erasing the Black History Told by Public Lands and Waters

[2]Trump officials sued over effort to ‘erase history and science’ in national parks

> John Philip Sousa's Portuguese father was born in Spain and his mother in Germany, while both Copland and Gershwin's parents were born in the Russian Empire. Ellington's grandparents were formerly enslaved.

Well, see above; MinTruthiness. [3]Chocolate rectify

> start the day with the Star Spangled Banner or the Pledge of Allegiance

Now the US is working towards a fully functioning Ministry of Truth, no doubt they will be braying against the ironically dated [4]1984 Pennsylvania amendment that codified students could freely opt-out of the Daily In-School Pledge (with the second sentence basically being a proviso that they basically shouldn't be aresholes about doing so).

[1] https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administration-is-intentionally-erasing-the-black-history-told-by-public-lands-and-waters/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/17/trump-national-parks-lawsuit

[3] https://genius.com/Eurythmics-doubleplusgood-lyrics

[4] https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/022/chapter12/s12.10.html

Real Americans

fishman

Real Americans celebrate and exercise our first amendment rights.

The others dodge the draft with "bone spurs" and throw around lawsuits to intimidate anyone on their enemies list.

Re: Real Americans

Bebu sa Ware

" Real Americans celebrate and exercise our first amendment rights. "

Sadly the Americans that consider themselves the only "Real Americans" are most notable in that they typically only " celebrate and exercise our second amendment rights. "

Start every day with the Pledge of Allegiance

Anonymous Coward

And don't forget to [1]do the correct salute .

(In case you don't spot it, Wikipedia provide

Re: Dear leader

Anonymous Coward

Yank here.

Maximum Leader Trump has gone full banana republic. He's always been a sociopath and malignant narcissistic, even before the dementia set in.

The American focus on (performative) "patriotism" really isn't that unexpected if you understand it as a consequence of the US being a relatively young melting pot whose unifying thread is some version of 'Murica #1 rather than a long, shared history as a distinct people.

What is British Culture? French Culture? German Culture? Italian Culture? Greek Culture? Etc.

Now do American Culture.

Re: Dear leader

Bebu sa Ware

" The American focus on (performative) "patriotism" really isn't that unexpected if you understand it as a consequence of the US being a relatively young melting pot whose unifying thread is some version of 'Murica #1 rather than a long, shared history as a distinct people. "

There are British Commonwealth nations that in even shorter time spans that have accepted large and diverse cultural groups without recourse to the simplistlic mindless performative patriotism of the US.

The distinguishing feature of those nations is the adoption of a multi·cultural model of integration eschewing the inferior model of the melting pot.

The materials analogy of the strength, toughness and resilience of composites compared with the weak, brittle shit·metal you get from the alloy of random scrap added to the melting pot, is fairly apt.

Patriotic Programming

Anonymous Coward

rm -rf /trump

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Bebu sa Ware

To be clear even Dr Johnson didn't mean that a patriot is a necessarily a scoundrel, but a scoundrel who has exhausted all other ruses inevitably assumes the mantle of patriotism. The scoundrel's love is less for his nation than for the integrity of his own skin.

The US is awash with scoundrels of every persuasion so we might have expected an epidemic of patriotism and indeed we are witnessing another plague of US jingoism.

The US Constitution is bullshit

VoiceOfTruth

Right from the preamble.

>> secure the Blessings of Liberty*

* Doesn't apply to people with black skin.

If Carr is so enthusiastic, let's see him honour John Brown for a start. Let him televise a reading of the names of the millions of kidnap victims who were treated as non-human property by good 'God loving Christians'.

Hitler did the same...

Jou (Mxyzptlk)

Oh, yes, we know. WE KNOW.

Another thing Hitler did: Every time school starts you have to sing or say the first part of national anthem (in Germany case: The version of that time). Well, guess what US is doing *checking*WOW* 1892 ? aaand WOW² "god" entered the picture 1954?

Time to take stock. Go home with some office supplies.