Politics & Power Quote by Robert McChesney

McChesney’s line has the plain-spoken chill of someone naming the ref in the middle of the game. By defining the National Association of Broadcasters as a “trade association” with a mission to “protect the interests of the commercial broadcasters,” he strips it of the civic costume it often wears: steward of the public airwaves, neutral voice of “broadcasting,” guardian of free speech. The move is rhetorical minimalism with maximum effect. He isn’t arguing about one policy; he’s arguing about the legitimacy of who gets to speak for an entire medium.

The intent is diagnostic. “If you look at the history” signals this isn’t a hot take but a pattern claim: follow the record and the NAB’s behavior becomes predictable. That’s the subtext: stop being surprised when the industry’s most powerful lobby acts like a lobby. McChesney’s deeper target is the persistent American confusion between public infrastructure and private control. Broadcast spectrum is regulated in the name of the public interest, yet the loudest institutional actor in the room is explicitly organized around commercial priorities.

Context matters here: debates over deregulation, consolidation, ownership caps, public-interest obligations, and the perennial question of whether broadcasters are quasi-public trustees or just businesses with especially valuable licenses. McChesney is reminding readers that when the NAB speaks the language of “broadcasting,” it’s often laundering a narrower agenda through a broader, almost patriotic vocabulary. The line works because it punctures that abstraction, turning an airy institution into what it is: an interest group with excellent PR.