Whether it’s mocking newspapers for shrinking subscriptions or demanding the firing of an ESPN anchorwoman, President Trump has been at near-constant war with the media since taking office. Today’s comments suggest he may be taking this out of a war of words and a more overt attempt at wholesale censorship of those he deems his enemies.
Trump responded with fury today to NBC News reports he’d sought a tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal, not only denying the story, but threatening to “challenge their license,” declaring NBC “bad for country.”
Even during the 2016 campaign, President Trump was threatening to move against newspapers and others saying it’s not “freedom of the press” to let media report without restrictions. He’s talked of changing libel laws to sue hostile media out of existence, and today lamented it is “frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever they want.”
While NBC was today’s target, Trump made clear they weren’t the only ones on the block, and within hours he was declaring network news in general as “partisan, distorted and fake,” and threatening to revoke all their licenses because it’s “not fair to public.”
While some experts say the threats could put pressure on NBC and others to be more pro-Trump, they also note the threats are basically empty. The United States does not license news media, and while President Trump could conceivably try to threaten the broadcast licenses’ of individual television stations owned by the networks, this would be both unprecedented and have no legal basis.
The whole controversy is likely to raised questions both about whether Trump is trying to censor the media, and whether in the course of his latest screed he was even aware that US presidents don’t legally have the authority to shut down news stations they have a personal beef with.
Revoke all these licenses. Why should these corporations own the airwaves? They did not invent the technology. Break up Big Media and Big Banks
Only after Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren set the country straight.
Right. Establishment controlled phony liberals will save us. Now you’re thinking.
Glad you agree with me. Now go back to Momma’s basement in your stained underwear and sing the Trump song with your arm proudly raised in salute to dear leader.
Juts because I recognize the establishment owned pols Warren and Sanders for what they are, you jump to the conclusion I support Trump? By the way, what’s “the Trump song”? Just another figment of your imagination?
“To dream… the impossible dream…”
The incredible durability of self-delusion.
Keep it up.
And this coming from a Trump supporter? The incredible durability of self delusion. Keep it up.
Trump won. Nothing delusional about that. “Russia! Russia! Russia!”…delusion. “Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!”… delusion.
MAGA! MAGA! MAGA!…delusion.
BTW. You may have misspelled your last name (common among Trumpsters) More like Fister. Go assault yourself.
NBC doesn’t have a license, Scooter.
How do you figure that? Are they a pirate television station? Of course they need and have a broadcast license, Chappy.
NBC isn’t a television station, Scooter.
That’s it? That’s your attempt to justify your inane comment that “NBC doesn’t have a license”? Surely you can do better than that, Beavis?
That’s it? That’s your attempt to justify your inane comment that “NBC doesn’t have a license”? Surely you can do better than that, Beavis?
McMurphy and friends are living in a fantasy world, still unable to adjust to what happened last November. Leave them undisturbed in their petulance.
The project to MAGA is going to be a long slog. Since there is no chance they will emerge from their KoolAid-induced cluelessness and lend a hand, it’s best just to let them remain marginalized.
Um, no. NBC as such neither needs nor has a broadcast license. Only actual stations need licenses. NBC owns a handful of stations, but most of its more than 200 local affiliate stations are not owned by it.
So NBC owns a handful of station and stations require broadcast licenses but NBC does not? Typical Knapp “logic”
Yes, typical Knapp logic that sticks with the facts other than just making stuff up.
NBC itself neither has, nor needs, any kind of license that Trump or the FCC could use to censor them.
From Wikipedia:
“The FCC is organized into seven Bureaus, which process ***applications for licenses***…”
“The Media Bureau (MB) develops, recommends and administers the policy and ***licensing programs*** relating to electronic media, including cable television, broadcast television, and radio in the United States and its territories. The Media Bureau ***also handles post-licensing*** matters regarding ***direct broadcast satellite service***.
“The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau regulates domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies, ***including licensing***.
Where there is licensing authority, there is revocation of licensing authority.
Finally, from wikipedia:
“The FCC is directed by five commissioners appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate for five-year terms, ***except when filling an unexpired term***. The U.S. President designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman. Only three commissioners may be members of the same political party.”
Currently, there are three Republican commissioners, including the Chairman.
My question is, “Can the president fire these guys and replace them with loyalists in the interregnum between congresses, or after he gains filibuster free control of the Senate in 2018?”
Absent heavy buy-in from Democrats, he won’t be gaining filibuster-free control of the Senate in 2018 (when the Democrats will likely assume the majority in that house) or any other year.
I wouldn’t ordinarily quote “The Hill”, it’s such a piece of sh*t. However, this is uncontroversial:
“The 2018 Senate map heavily favors Republicans, who will only defend eight seats, just two of which are considered vulnerable right now. By comparison, Democrats have to defend 25 seats, including 10 in states that Trump won in 2016.”
Trump focused on winning just the Presidency in the last election. Bannon will help him to clean out the Republican old guard in the upcoming election, enabling Trump to complete his take-over of the Republican party by “winning” the Senate, ie installing Trump loyalists. Bannon’s “war on the Republican establishment” will include the House. The Republican party is being reconfigured into the Trump Republican party, or as I like to say, the Trumpublican Party.
On the other side of the aisle, the Dem party is terminal. Identity politics has imploded. 2016 revealed the Dem party to be a phony panderer to its “little people” constituency. They are revealed as “Republicans in Dem clothing” — servants of the one percent. And HRC administered the coup de grace when she called the working class “Deplorables”. Thus the Dem party is a walking corpse. And the evidence-free Russia nonsense —
a minor gaffe really — just emphasizes their cluelessness.
Patience is required for the long slog that will be required to MAGA, if that’s even possible at all. Stay tuned Thomas, and see you on election night 2018.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard the claim that one of the two major parties is “terminal,” I’d be quite wealthy.
Hopefully they’re both screwed. But if Trumpism extends beyond a single four-year train wreck, I hope the GOP has its funeral plan pre-paid and that it takes the whole system down with it.
Not a bad idea but I don’t think Trump’s motives are based on who owns the airwaves. The drivel coming out of Fox is fine with him.
“frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever they want”
I would say that President Führer hates the 1st Amendment but I might be accused of Trump Derangement Syndrome. So I definitely won’t say that.
Trump is right in the sense that the mainstream news is not acting in the public interest, the government issues their licenses and could add more conditions to that. But this level of analysis is not the crux of his argument – he is saying that reporting something that may well be true but is unflattering to him is a crime against the state. If his issue were that the press goes to print without enough substantiated sources, by all means lets establish one standard and hold everyone to it. But no, is problem is with free speech itself.
Trump is a danger to every American, except Goldman Sachs and the Zionist lobby;s that have poisoned every aspect of our foreign policy, media ect…Trump is so morally bankrupt that he thinks nothing of destroying our country.