After suggesting Wednesday morning that television networks’ broadcasting licenses should be challenged, President Donald Trump ramped up his threat to news outlets, arguing that their broadcasting licenses “must be challenged” or even “revoked.”
Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
Trump has long bashed the media and and targeted specific outlets after they publish unfavorable reports. However, Trump escalated his tiff with NBC News Wednesday morning. He had already bashed the outlet following a report that Secretary of State Tillerson called him a “moron.” Trump’s frustration with NBC then grew when the outlet then reported that he told officials over the summer that he wanted to significantly increase the United States’ nuclear capabilities.
He asked on Twitter Wednesday morning, “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License?” Trump followed up later in the day to say that “it’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want.”
Despite the threats Trump has issued on Twitter, there’s not much he can do to challenge networks’ broadcasting licenses.
