Trump calls ABC and NBC ‘fake news’, says he’d favor FCC pulling their licenses
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump launched a late-night attack on NBC and ABC News, accusing them of biased coverage and saying he would support revoking their broadcast licenses, a move that would face major constitutional hurdles.
In a series of posts on Sunday, August 24, Trump claimed that the networks were giving him overwhelmingly negative coverage.
Trump slams ABC and NBC as 'most biased networks anywhere in the world'
"The news outlets had given me negative coverage on 97% of stories," Donald Trump wrote, though he did not provide a source for the figure. A study by the conservative Media Research Center earlier this year put negative coverage of Trump’s first 100 days at 92 percent.
"IF THAT IS THE CASE," Trump wrote in all caps, "THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED."
He added he would be "totally in favor" of revoking licenses because the outlets are "so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy." Trump followed up by labeling both networks "FAKE NEWS" and "two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the world."
Being national networks, ABC and NBC News do not directly hold Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses for news content.
Their programming is aired through local affiliates that are licensed and regulated by the FCC. Any move to revoke licenses over perceived news bias would conflict with First Amendment protections.
Courts have previously struck down similar attempts, affirming that political grievances cannot dictate broadcast licensing.
Trump questions fees, rails against media
Donald Trump also questioned why these networks are not "paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES."
He wrote, "They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked 'journalism' should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!"
The confrontation marks Trump’s latest clash with major news organizations. Last year, he settled a $15 million defamation lawsuit against ABC, and earlier this year, Paramount Global and CBS agreed to pay $16 million to settle the '60 Minutes' lawsuit.
Trump also recently attacked CNN and The New York Times for their coverage of US military strikes in Iran.
