Without calling out President Trump by name, Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai shut down the idea Trump put forward last week that NBC and other broadcasters could be punished for “Fake News” by blocking the renewal of their station licenses, a process the FCC oversees.
“I believe in the First Amendment,” Pai, who was selected by Trump to lead the independent commission, said at a Washington event Tuesday, according to Politico.
“The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment, and under the law the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on content of a particular newscast,” he continued.
Pai was not the only commissioner to throw cold water on Trump’s threat, which Trump tweeted after NBC published a report on remarks the President made at a private Pentagon meeting.
Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic appointee to the commission, tweeted her own response to Trump’s tweet last week.
Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. Hope my @FCC colleagues can all be on the same page with respect to 1st Amendment. https://t.co/1aNpYsk7BG
— Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcel) October 11, 2017
Beyond the First Amendment considerations, there would be practical issues facing the FCC if it tried to carry out Trump’s threats. Networks like NBC aren’t issued a blanket license through the FCC. Rather, the individual stations it owns and operates renew their licenses on a cyclical basis (on top of the dozens of NBC affiliates the corporation does not own).
Pathetic that he has to come out and make this statement.
Sad reality, he will probably get attacked by Trumpioids for making a public statement that denies Trump his rightful ability (that he doesn’t have) -guessing the hate emails and social media attacks from the far right have already begun.
Maybe Bannon will convince the Mercers to give him even more money to go after the FCC.
Is this minion not flagrantly refusing to carry out an official order of the commander in chief? That might compromise our national security.
Now it is up to Jeff Sessions to bring a lawsuit that will take away NBC’s broadcasting license. Will he?
White christian conservatives have to work to get rid of the First Amendment so that the Second Amendment can become Numero Uno.
The Overton Window has been yanked so far to the extreme right by the reality of Trump’s presidency that people well out of the mainstream ideologically get credit for stating the obvious. Hard to tell whether they believe what they are saying or just recognize that they can’t say what they actually believe.
We’ll see what happens with net neutrality…
And while everyone’s outrage meter has gone to eleven, the death toll in Puerto Rico continues to rise and nobody is talking about it. So, for Trump, Mission Accomplished…
Bye bye Pai.