![]() ![]() ![]() When Twitter began posting fact-based content links alongside Trump’s more preposterous tweets, his solution was to bring forth the power of federal agencies. While pulling those licenses never happened, the threat was designed to have a chilling effect on the network’s editorial decisions (there is no proof it did so at NBC).Ī few weeks ago, in a carefully orchestrated Oval Office event, the president tried the same kind of intimidation with internet social media networks. Then he threatened government action: “Look at their license?” Of course, NBC, the network, does not hold a “license,” but the parent company does own very valuable FCC-granted broadcast television licenses in many major cities. ![]() “I have long criticized NBC and their journalistic standards – worse than even CNN,” he wrote. Previous threats include a September 2018 tweet targeting the television licenses of a company that displeased him. Such authority makes one tremble when considered alongside Donald Trump’s stated belief, “When somebody’s the President of the United States, the authority is total.” His recent threat to social media platforms to “close them down” continues his efforts to use government authority to coerce and manipulate the media. The statute also gives the president the power to suspend or amend FCC regulations. All that is necessary for the exercise of these huge powers is a “proclamation by the President” of “national emergency” in the case of broadcast stations and mobile phones, or the “interest of the national security” for the internet or telephone networks. An obscure provision tucked at the back of the Communications Act ( Sec.706, codified as 47 USC 606) empowers the president to “cause the closing of any station for radio communications” (such as broadcasting or mobile phone networks) as well as “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communications” (such as telephone and internet networks). ![]()
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