A pattern has emerged in which a prominent political figure has repeatedly called for major television networks to lose their broadcasting licenses, a threat that legal experts say holds no practical weight.
Over the past eight years, this individual has suggested on at least 28 separate occasions that networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN should be stripped of their licenses. These statements are typically made in response to news coverage he deems unfavorable.
The calls for license revocation intensified recently following a contentious exchange with a White House correspondent. The reporter’s questions reportedly prompted the public threat against her employer.
However, the Federal Communications Commission, the body that regulates broadcast media, does not license national networks. Its authority extends only to the individual local stations that networks may own or that are affiliated with them. A commissioner publicly stated last week that the threats are effectively hollow, noting the FCC lacks the power to retaliate against an entire news network and that no relevant station licenses are up for imminent renewal.
The threats have been a consistent feature of the political figure’s public commentary. He has frequently labeled news organizations as “fake” and “corrupt,” accusing them of partisan bias and election interference. In numerous public statements and social media posts, he has asserted that networks violate the terms of their licenses by being dishonest and should therefore have them revoked.
The underlying premise of these threats—that the federal government licenses and can directly penalize national news networks—is factually incorrect, highlighting a significant disconnect between the political rhetoric and the legal framework governing American broadcast media.
