Trump shares call for media 'accountability' with 'Charlie Kirk Act' after shooting

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Saturday 13 September 2025 18:27 EDT


Donald Trump has shared a video calling for the president to reinstate a Cold War-era media “accountability” law in response to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, with a petition calling for its revival gathering more than 5,000 signatures within 13 hours.

Following the 31-year-old Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University and the arrest of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, TikTok user Ellie May called for the president to reintroduce the Smith‑Mundt Act, a U.S. law once intended to prevent domestic dissemination of U.S.-backed foreign media, and to give it a new name: the “Charlie Kirk Act.”

May’s video went viral and was shared on the president’s Truth Social account. In her video, May accused media outlets of “spreading propaganda” and conspiracy theories that spread rapidly across social media platforms.

AI‑generated images and false claims misidentifying the suspect were among the content circulated, some of which gained additional reach via Grok, X’s AI chatbot. It reportedly acknowledged errors only after several false posts had already gone viral.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/media-censorship-accountability-charlie-kirk-act-b2825988.html

[Irish_Dem]

1. Trump lies and makes false claims every time he opens his damn mouth.

More projection.

[Walleye]

2. Too bad there are no laws that really applied to him

[Irish_Dem]

3. A vicious brutal psychopath criminal is President of the United States.

Supreme Court says everything he does is perfectly legal.

US is now one big crime syndicate.

[Walleye]

6. I am sick of him going around the world making "deals" with our money

[Irish_Dem]

7. And using the threat of the US military to get his way.

Military funded by us.

[LiberalArkie]

8. As emperor, Trump is just making deals with his money. At least that is how he sees it.

[Walleye]

16. Oh I know

[kimbutgar]

19. And I want someone to find out where his offshore account is when he gets his shakedown $ from companies

And foreign governments. And how much he’s stealing from our treasury. Remember he went to Fort Knox and he probably took a couple of goldbricks.

[LiberalArkie]

20. Somewhere in Saudi Arabia more than likely.

[Walleye]

21. I'm sure he gets a piece of every deal. That's always been his way. And leopards don't change.

[kimbutgar]

22. And sadly when it is exposed his magaloon cult members will shirk their shoulders and be ok with it!

But it BETTER not be a Democratic president who does that because they’d be under a jail by now!

[twodogsbarking]

4. Goodbye FOX..........

[mdbl]

9. Seriously! That's their entire business model

Misinformation, no accountability, outright lies.

[JohnnyRingo]

14. Always read the fine print

I'm sure there would be "exclusions" for "fair & balanced".

[BadgerKid]

5. US-Pravda coming soon. Nt

[Scalded Nun]

10. Require media accountability...ABSOLUTELY!

Public media must serve the public and the public interest, not the interests of the rich, the powerful, and the owners...and they must serve the truth!

We no longer have that in this country.

There must be a reckoning for the media's complete betrayal of the truth, our country, and our people. Failure to do that means we can expect the same again at some point in the future.

[ConstanceCee]

11. That's All?

Five-thousand signatures in 13 hours?

[GenThePerservering]

31. I noticed that, too

Pretty weak sauce.

[JHB]

12. I don't trust him to do it, but fixing media accountability is something very necessary

Last edited Sun Sep 14, 2025, 02:39 PM - Edit history (1)

The right has benefited immensely from the exceedingly high bar for libel and slander suits from public figures. While public image always made such suits dicey, I think all stoppers were removed by the precedent of Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), where Falwell tried and failed to sue Hustler for libel because of the personally insulting content of an obvious parody liquor ad.

From then on, it was open season to say absolutely anything about public figures, and the Right, including Falwell himself, leaned into it with gusto. Where would the nation be if the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, all of FOX, all of hate radio, had to throttle it back just a smidge?

[hadEnuf]

13. This "act" would clearly apply to fact based media only. Fox and the rest would continue to say whatever they want

and spread their lies and hate far and wide, unfettered, while credible news organizations sit in court or prison.

This is a way for Trump to establish right-wing media lies as fact, and to prosecute the truth as a criminal act.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. I'd rather have presidential accountability

Trump's head's so far up his ass he couldn't figure out Kirk's killer wasn't a liberal.

[Martin68]

17. I'm all out of laughs.

[Bayard]

18. I rarely say this, BUT--

Give me a fucking break!! This hate-monger is being turned into a martyr and a saint. trump has not said one word about the shooter being a rich rethuglican white kid.

[cstanleytech]

23. Yates v. United States

[ChicagoTeamster]

24. After all the hate spewed by Kirk, Trump, and other RWers

Fox News and NewsMax were successfully sued for the lies they broadcast

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. From Wikipedia:

The Act was developed to regulate broadcasting of programs for foreign audiences produced under the guidance by the State Department, and it prohibited domestic dissemination of materials produced by such programs as one of its provisions.[1] The original version of the Act was amended by the Smith–Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 under Barack Obama which allowed for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be made available within the United States.[2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act?wprov=sfla1]

I don't see what this has to do with Charlie Kirk or much of anything else.

[BumRushDaShow]

28. Remember - these loons have created a fictionalized delusional universe

where the lies they tell become "reality" in their deranged minds.

From the article (further down)

(snip)

May called on Trump in her video to restore the Smith‑Mundt Act, which she falsely claimed was abolished in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, and to rename it in Kirk’s honor.

Obama did not abolish the Smith-Mundt Act. Instead, his administration oversaw the passage of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which amended parts of the original law.

Nothing in that bill applies to what private media organizations in the can or cannot publish.

The original 1948 act created a ban on the domestic dissemination of informational materials produced by the U.S. government intended for foreign audiences, like those from the Voice of America.

The amendment, becoming effective on July 2, 2013, lifted the decades-old ban, so Americans can access content from the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the media organizations that it supports.

(snip)

[Raven123]

26. How about starting with the FBI?

They disseminated BS and then didn’t announce the suspect’s capture so Trump could do so on FOX. What a joke.

[Pinback]

27. Fairness Doctrine anyone? (nt)

[the nelm]

29. And who gets to be the arbiter of the truth? Let me guess. Mr. Trump? n/t

[Skittles]

30. oh the IRONY

KIRK AND FUENTES WERE / ARE IN THE PROPAGANDA BUSINESS