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President Donald Trump on Sunday pushed his criticism of mainstream media outlets, singling out NBC and ABC News and suggesting their broadcast licenses should be revoked over what he called overwhelmingly negative coverage of his administration.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump accused the networks of devoting “97%” of their stories to negative coverage of him. It was not immediately clear where that figure came from. A 2017 study by the conservative Media Research Center found 92 percent of news coverage during his first 100 days in office was negative.
“IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED,” Trump wrote in all caps. “They are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy.”
The president said he would be “totally in favor” of such a move and followed up by labeling both outlets “FAKE NEWS” and “two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the world.”
Trump also questioned why networks were not “paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES,” writing that “crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!”
Broadcast networks such as NBC and ABC do not hold FCC licenses for news content themselves but distribute programming through local affiliates, which are subject to FCC licensing. Experts say any attempt to revoke licenses over news coverage would almost certainly be struck down in court.
The FCC collects annual fees from broadcasters and cable outlets to fund regulation, but it does not impose penalties based on perceived bias. Only Congress has authority over license fee levels, which are deposited in the U.S. Treasury.
Trump has previously clashed with news organizations over coverage of his policies. He settled a $15 million defamation suit against ABC last year. Earlier this year, Paramount Global and CBS agreed to settle an election interference lawsuit brought by Trump. He also recently mocked MSNBC’s rebranding to MS Now following the network’s longtime criticisms of the president.
