The president of the United States threatened to cancel the broadcast license for television networks after a story released by NBC on Oct. 11.
The story describe President Trump’s desire to increase the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal by tenfold at a meeting with several officials.
The story also said the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, called the president a “moron,†which Tillerson did not deny. The president said the same day on Twitter it was a fake story made up to demean him and compared the network to CNN, another news outlet the president has vilified.
“With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!†Trump tweeted.
Eric Groenendyk, a political science professor at the University of Memphis, said the very First Amendment guaranteed freedom of the press because the founders of the United States recognized it was essential to the existence of a democracy. Therefore, the government cannot censor what the press reports.
"Based on the President's track-record of making such threats, I would guess that little will come of it," Groenendyk said. "Repeated criticism of the press and accusation that appropriately sourced stories constitute 'fake news' undermines the very foundations of democracy."
Groenendyk said if people lose faith in the press, or choose not to protect its freedom, democracy is gravely threatened.
To prevent radio stations from broadcasting over other radio stations, the federal government created the Federal Communications Commission to regulate stations. The government regulates broadcast media in this way, and courts would scrutinize any additional regulation of broadcast media, Groenendyk said.
“Television networks, like NBC, are not licensed so it is the individual television stations that carry their content that are licensed,†Groenendyk said. “In this respect, the President may be a bit confused.â€
In response to Trump’s call for possibly revoking NBC News’ license, a commissioner for the FCC responded by tweeting to Trump “that’s not how it works.†He included a link to “The Public and Broadcasting,†an FCC publication.
Networks do not have federal licenses and the president has no legal power to deny them. The FCC regulates stations, not networks, but because the rules are so loose, they are almost unenforceable, said Joe Hayden, a journalism professor at the U of M and an expert in media and politics.
“The government is barred from curtailing the press, and broadcasting has always been subject to some regulation since, at least when it started, it was considered a scarce commodity,†Hayden said. “Many of those regulations, like the Fairness Doctrine which is what allows a network like Fox News to propagate a political point of view, were dropped in the 1980s and 1990s.â€
Hayden said regardless of what the president thinks, he does not have much power in this area.
“Donald Trump is ignorant of a great many things, including American values, customs and institutions,†Hayden said. “He’s supposed to protect and uphold the Constitution, but I wouldn’t bet on him to start now.â€
