Fresh off his thorough victory over CBS News, President Trump is taking aim at ABC and NBC.
"Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren't paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES," Trump wrote on Truth Social last night. "They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked 'journalism' should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!"
While Trump's many threats to revoke broadcaster licenses have never led to any actual license revocations, the CBS developments show how he can use the government to influence operations at news organizations. CBS owner Paramount recently inked a $16 million settlement with Trump and then agreed to install a "bias monitor" in order to gain Federal Communications Commission approval of an $8 billion merger with Skydance. Now Trump is turning his attention to ABC and NBC.
"Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% BAD STORIES," Trump wrote in another post last night. "IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!!! MAGA."
We contacted ABC and NBC today and will update this article if either company provides any response to Trump's statements.
License revocations are a lot more complicated than Trump makes them sound. The FCC doesn't issue licenses directly to networks such as CBS, NBC, or ABC. The FCC's licensing authority is over broadcast stations, although many of those stations are owned and operated by a big network.
As we've written, revoking a license in the middle of a license term is so difficult legally that it has been described as effectively impossible. The FCC can go after a license when it's up for renewal, but there are no TV station licenses up for renewal until 2028.
FCC chair backs Trump’s war on media
The FCC had immediate leverage over CBS because Paramount and Skydance were eager to complete their merger. They agreed to a merger condition requiring an ombudsman, which FCC Chairman Brendan Carr described as a "bias monitor."
Paramount was also facing a lawsuit from Trump over his claim that 60 Minutes deceptively manipulated a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris. CBS published unedited transcripts and video that rebutted Trump's claims but chose to settle with the president in a deal that congressional Democrats described as bribery.
The FCC and Paramount both denied that the $16 million settlement had any connection to the merger review, but the deal with Trump was followed quickly by the FCC merger approval. Trump also previously obtained a $15 million settlement with ABC over false statements made on air by George Stephanopoulos.
Carr has made it clear that he supports Trump's battles against broadcast stations.
"For years, people cowed down to the executives behind these companies based in Hollywood and New York, and they just accepted that these national broadcasters could dictate how people think about topics, that they could set the narrative for the country—and President Trump fundamentally rejected it," Carr told NewsMax after the FCC announced its Paramount/Skydance merger approval. "He smashed the facade that these are gatekeepers that can determine what people think. Everything we're seeing right now flows from that decision by President Trump, and he's winning. PBS has been defunded. NPR has been defunded. CBS is committing to restoring fact-based journalism... President Trump stood up to these legacy media gatekeepers and now their business models are falling apart."
Shortly after Trump promoted him to the FCC chairmanship, Carr revived several bias complaints against broadcast stations that were dismissed by the FCC's previous leadership. The ABC complaint accused the network of biased fact-checking during a presidential debate, while the NBC complaint pertained to the network putting Harris on a Saturday Night Live episode.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission's only Democrat, has warned against the FCC's licensing authority being "weaponized to curtail freedom of the press." In a statement after the Paramount/Skydance merger approval, Gomez said that "this will not be the end of this administration's campaign of intervention in media to silence critics, gain favorable coverage, and impose ideological conformity on newsrooms that should remain independent. With longstanding institutions like CBS compromised in this way, it will be up to us—as citizens—to hold this administration accountable for its abuses."
80s Nostalgia AI Slop Is Boomerfying the Masses for a Past That Never Existed