“As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” she said. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
Yes and it’s standard procedure in news programming. TV news programs regularly edit interviews – as do other news outlets – to fit time and space constraints, said Mark Feldstein, professor of journalism at the University of Maryland.
“The question is whether the responses used are out of context or an unfair representation of what the interviewee said,” he told USA TODAY. “I don’t see it here in this case: In both broadcasts, Harris gave ambiguously hedged boilerplate responses to the question; the only difference is which portion of her longer ambiguously hedged boilerplate responses were used in the different broadcasts.”
Added Feldstein, “I think at bottom this is really just more whining from Trump about how unfairly the mainstream media is treating him – and an attempt to justify why he ducked being interviewed himself by ’60 Minutes’.”
Trump did turn down an interview on the traditional “60 Minutes” pre-election program featuring the presidential candidates, CBS News reported , with one reported reason that the program would fact-check the former president.
Can the FCC revoke CBS’s broadcast license?
No. The FCC issues licenses for broadcast stations, not networks, Feldstein said. On the FCC website, it states the agency does not license “TV or radio networks (such as CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox) or other organizations that stations have relationships with, such as PBS or NPR, except if those entities are also station licensees.”
However, Trump’s “disturbing call to punish CBS” is important, Feldstein said. “It’s yet another indication of Trump’s contempt for freedom of the press, and the ways he would try to abuse his power if he’s returned to the White House,” he said.
Earlier this year, Trump said CNN and NBC, “should have their licenses or whatever they have taken away,” when the networks opted not to broadcast his live remarks after winning the Iowa caucuses, wrote Steve Benen, editor of MaddowBlog on MSNBC.com .
Back in 2017, then-FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who was appointed agency head by Trump, pushed back on Trump’s complaints that NBC should be punished for its coverage of his administration, The Washington Post reported.
“I believe in the First Amendment,” Pai said in 2017 after Trump suggested NBC should face consequences for critical coverage of his administration. “The FCC, under my leadership, will stand for the First Amendment,” the Post reported Pai saying at the time . “Under the law, the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.”
It’s a policy Rosenworcel has upheld, too.
After Trump’s comments about ABC and the presidential debate, she said, “The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. … The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”
