Trump Threatens NBC License
President Donald Trump denied ever calling for a bigger U.S. nuclear arsenal and questioned whether FCC licenses should be taken from NBC television stations after the network published a story on Wednesday saying he had done so in a meeting with military and security officials.
“It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write and people should want to look into it,” Trump told reporters as he met at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump’s denial was backed up by a statement by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false,” Mattis said. “This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible.”
Just to set the record straight, broadcasters are required to operate "in the public interest". According to reports I've read, NBC is licensed to operate 28 television stations, mostly in the largest markets in the country.
About 50 years ago the FCC revoked the license of the most watched television station in Mississippi for political reasons. The FCC cited the reason as "public interest" of course but it was political and the license was immediately re-issued to a group with strong Democrat political affiliations.
Curiously, the station which had its license revoked was the NBC affiliate.
Democrats have since that time repeatedly attacked talk-radio stations and had success doing so. Trump would seem to have a valid argument that "lies" broadcast over FCC regulated airwaves are hardly in the public interest. While broadcasters certainly have 1st amendment rights, the 1st amendment does not guarantee them license renewal. Just the way it is. The history in the country is that broadcasters do lose their licenses when they fail to operate "in the public interest".
