In the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump’s attacks on the mainstream news media appear to have reached a fever pitch.
Trump has for years publicly railed against certain journalists or news outlets he views unfavorably, often calling the news media “the enemy of the people.” But in recent weeks, the former president has stepped up threats to use the government if re-elected to punish news outlets that air interviews, ads or other programs he doesn’t like.
In particular, Trump has repeatedly gone after CBS, accusing the network of deceptively editing an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on 60 minutes on October 7. (Trump withdrew from his own country 60 minutes interview before that program aired.) Trump claimed the final broadcast of the 60 minutes interview was misleading and therefore evidence that the network had a pro-Harris bias.
“60 minutes must be removed from the air immediately [for] election interference. CBS should lose its license. This is the biggest scandal in the history of broadcasting,” Trump wrote in Truth Social on October 17.
Trump has since posted several times asking CBS to release the publication 60 minutes transcript of the interview. On October 22, he shared screenshots of his attorney’s letter to CBS News demanding that the network “immediately provide and publicly release the full, unedited transcript of the letter.” [the] 60 minutes interview.”
Trump’s latest line of attack against CBS and other broadcasters highlights the government’s role in licensing television broadcasts and raises questions about whether the president has the power to control what is allowed on the air.
Why is Trump going after CBS?
The recent tirades against CBS stem from the discrepancy between a promotional video of Harris’ answer to a question about the Middle East, broadcast on Confront the nation on October 6 and a shorter version of the same answer that aired as part of the full interview on 60 minutes the next day.
In the interview, the host, Bill Whitaker, asks Harris: “Doesn’t the US have influence over Prime Minister Netanyahu?”
In the Confront the nation example clip, as transcribed by The Hill on October 6, Harris says: “Well, Bill, the work that we’ve done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much motivated or a result of many things . , including our advocacy for what needs to be done in the region.”
According to the interview transcript that CBS published during the portion of the interview that aired 60 minutes, Harris responds: “The work we do diplomatically with Israel’s leadership is an ongoing effort to make our principles clear.”
In a statement on October 20, said 60 minutes said the program “provided an excerpt of our interview Confront the nation which used a longer part of her answer than the one at 60 minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different part of the response.”
“When we edit an interview, whether it is with a politician, an athlete or a movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and timely,” the statement continued. “The 60 Minutes portion of her response was more concise, allowing time for other topics in a broad 21-minute segment.”
But that hasn’t stopped Trump from seizing on the difference between the two clips as evidence of CBS’ alleged bias against Harris.
During a Fox News interview on Sunday, Trump doubled down on threats against CBS, saying, “We’re going to subpoena their records.”
What does the government have to do with TV broadcasting licenses?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the independent government agency that regulates broadcasting to ensure that it serves the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” Broadcasters are responsible for choosing the material they broadcast, and the FCC oversees that material – not to prevent certain ideas or information from being shared, but to ensure that rules and regulations are followed (such as blurring out nudity or censoring certain language).
Major broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS and NBC do not require licenses to produce or publish news content; but local affiliates do require broadcast licenses. These licenses are approved by the FCC, which is separate from the White House.
The FCC is a five-member board in which a maximum of three people can come from the same political party. It currently includes two Republicans: Nathan Simington and Brendan Carr.
Does the President have the power to punish broadcasters?
The FCC has ruled out any reason to believe Trump could continue to revoke broadcast licenses. In an October 10 statement, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called Trump’s allegations “serious and should not be ignored,” clarifying that “the FCC does not and will not revoke broadcast station licenses simply because a political candidate disagrees is with or hates the content or reporting. .”
Theoretically, if Trump were re-elected and the Senate returned to Republican control, a third Republican could be appointed to the FCC board. But Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a public interest communications attorney and lecturer at Georgetown Law, told Yahoo News that even if Trump returns to the White House, he “can’t just direct” the FCC to do what he wants.
“There are a lot of precedents,” Schwartzman said. “Members of the FCC, especially Republican members of the FCC, have historically been very pro-broadcasters and very protective of broadcasters.”
Hypothetically, if Trump were to somehow push the FCC to deviate from its precedent and go against broadcasters, the Communications Act of 1996 would not allow the organization to simply revoke a broadcast license. Trump and the FCC would have to wait, Schwartzman explained, until the licensing contracts expired and then deny the renewal application. Even then, the contracts will not expire until mid-2028.
“The timing, the technical aspects of it, it’s just not really politically, procedurally and legally practical to talk about it,” Schwartzman explained.
For Schwartzman and some other legal experts, the real concern is how Trump’s rhetoric might be perceived by average Americans as a threat to their First Amendment rights.
“Trump has as much right to harass a broadcaster about their license as any other citizen,” Schwartzman said. “The hassle factor and the threat to First Amendment values are very real and genuine and a reason to be concerned. But will this result in the loss of a broadcast license? No.”
In a statement to Yahoo News, Curtis LeGeyt, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, said: “The threat of any politician to revoke a broadcast license simply because he disagrees with the channel’s content , undermines” the First Amendment.
What other news sources has Trump turned to?
After the presidential debate in September, Trump also proposed revoking ABC’s broadcast license. In an interview with Fox & Friendshe said: “They should have their license taken away because of the way they did it” in the debate.
In September, Trump announced on Truth Social that if re-elected, he would investigate Comcast, the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, so that it could be “thoroughly investigated for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt reporting” and “investigated for its ‘Country Threatening betrayal. ”
These threats are not new either. In 2016, before he won the election, Trump suggested his lawyers wanted him to file a lawsuit against the New York Times for “irresponsible intent.” In 2022, he even proposed legal action against Fox News for airing ads for the Lincoln Project, a political action committee for anti-Trump conservatives.
