It’s no secret President Trump is not a fan of a lot of the major news organizations and the way they cover him. Following the President’s tweet asking when it’s appropriate to challenge NBC’s broadcast license because he believes they broadcast fake news, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel decided her opinion needed to be heard. Here’s what she had to say…
Rosenworcel dropped two tweets on the subject. The first simply said “Not How it Works,” with a link to a 33-page FCC document called “THE PUBLIC AND BROADCASTING: How To Get The Most Service From Your Station.”
The second tweet was about the First Amendment: “Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. Hope my @FCC colleagues can all be on the same page with respect to 1st Amendment.”
The NAB also chimed in with a statement from President and CEO Gordon Smith: “The founders of our nation set as a cornerstone of our democracy the First Amendment, forever enshrining and protecting freedom of the press. It is contrary to this fundamental right for any government official to threaten the revocation of an FCC license simply because of a disagreement with the reporting of a journalist.”
I’m amazed at how many TG’s keep showing up everywhere, like Fred, Steven, and the so called “Realist”, who doesn’t even have the courage to state his name! Nothing wrong about being a TG, or having NO testicles, but continuing your hate for Trump and echoing the same stupid message from Democrats NOT ONLY proves your LACK of testicles, like most Democrats, but it also display your level of ignorance and stupidity! Trump is a “con artist”? Really?? Says who, you, IDIOTS/LOSERS??? Trump is our President, while you’re just a bunch of envious losers with NO testicles!!!
Wow – all these comments about another meaningless statement from a Reality Show Con Artist to direct attention away from the fact that he is a fraud. When are people going to understand that he doesn’t believe a word that comes out of his own mouth either and stop getting outraged enough to respond?
People who think he is a bigot, insane or stupid are giving him too much credit that he actually thinks about anyone besides himself and you don’t combat a raging narcissist by giving him MORE attention. Only by ignoring the fraud and keeping pressure on the craven Republicans can we bring and end to this charade. And believe me, the Reality Show Con Artist – who was never running for President but was running for ATTENTION – will be much happier as well. He doesn’t want the job and was only in it for money and vanity yet his “poorly educated voters” took it seriously.
Uh the NBC network doesn’t have a license. Why wouldn’t the commissioner just say that rather than posting a link to a 33 page doc that no one will read? Apparently Gordo NAB didn’t know that either.
Broadcasting something that is knowingly misleading and possibly harmful to the public should not be tolerated. While the President is surely entitled to his opinion, it’s his opinion. He can’t yank NBC’s or any other license. Obama declared war on talk radio and openly fought with Fox News because he didn’t like their reporting. It’s a nothing story that’s blown up again because Trump said it. Obama could talk all about shutting down Rush, Sean, Levin, Savage, Ingraham and everyone else and all we heard was crickets. Obama talked about his hate for Fox News and suddenly stickers talking about a Fox News boycott showed up. It’s a tweet. I bet Trump laughs every time someone gets their feathers up over a tweet.
Except Obama would never suggest “shutting down Rush, Sean, etc”….because Obama was/is a CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR. Trump doesn’t know the Constitution from his elbow.
Yeah right. Obama would have crushed Rush if he could have got away with it. The stupid idiot didn’t know have if what he was suppose to have learned to graduate. And by the way, if Obamacare were still president, this fcc commissioner would have fell over backwards to please Obama, geeezzz.
Ah, yes… you got to love the incredibly predictable responses from the old angry conservative white man contingent of radio. Aren’t you guys up for retirement soon?
How pathetic it is watching the old angry white men of radio coming out in support of a disgusting pig like Donald Trump. You gotta love this business.
I wonder what would’ve happened if President Obama suggested the FCC should revoke the licenses of the hundreds of conservative talk stations in this country. President Trump’s statements about the press should send shivers down the spines of all Americans. His rhetoric undermines the most basic principles of our republic. We should not take it lightly.
From across the border, this looks like a conversation that really is unnecessary and shouldn’t have got cranked up at all – except for that one, niggling, combed-over factor.
Does anybody actually know what the first amendment says?
Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
As far as I can tell, congress isn’t trying to make a law. No one’s freedom of speech or press is being threatened.
Only the press’s freedom of speech is being threatened. With that, so is Democracy.
If he pulls a license, that would be an Executive Order affecting an external party — unless Trump has invented some magic means to do it. Usually, EO’s are used relevant to a government body. If he signed an EO vis-a-vis NBC, Congress and/or the judiciary will become involved, as they are entitled to do. The result would almost certainly be a law blocking the move (or “clarifying” this kind of situation) or a judicial nullification — which has happened already with this Administration. Effectively, and realistically, Trump would not be able to unilaterally revoke NBC’s license (seriously, can you imagine him winning that fight?). It’s total Trump baby nonsense again. And yes, some of us are VERY familiar with the wording of the First Amendment.
NBC does not have a license. The FCC does not license networks.
You are right.
Where is the RTNDA and others on this issue. I have had listeners and viewers threaten me before when the station ran stories that one powerful person or perhaps many did not deal with very well . However, in that day we did have sources that we protected and they were iron clad before we went to air. Is that the case today ? Social media and the 24 hour news cycle has really caused a lot of things from a journalist point of view to be questionable. Yes it is great to be first and it is a feeling like no other to break a story. Being first and being correct is the way it should be done, not sure today. I know what a monster a 24/7 all news radio station can be. No different for cable news , and network news who all compete with yes the public and social media. The loser here is media, and journalism and free press. The consuming public does not rate anyone of the three real high. We need to step back and take a good look at the slippery slope we are on.
Journalism is about the objective dissemination of information; operative word OBJECTIVE. That’s gone. News today could better be described as irresponsible, misleading and downright deceitful; hiding behind the guise of freedom of the press. What’s worse is the continual dumbing down of our society that results in the inability to distinguish the difference.
Suddenly that great talker and BSer Ajit Pai is quiet. Quiet on a fundamental issue about which Trump is completely ignorant. Pai knows which side his bread is buttered on and he has no intention of rocking Trump’s boat. But what if Trump says something similar about radio? Will “Radio’s Friend” find voice then or will the little crook stay under his rock?