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 "With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC
and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge
their License? Bad for country!" Trump, a Republican, wrote in a
post on Twitter on Wednesday.
Trump and his supporters have repeatedly used the term "fake
news" to cast doubt on media reports critical of his
administration, often without providing any evidence to support
their case that the reports were untrue.
Trump kept up his criticism of the media in an appearance with
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying: "It is frankly
disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to
write."
In a tweet late on Wednesday, Trump said: "Network news has
become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be
challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!"
Any move to challenge media companies' licenses, however, would
likely face significant hurdles.
The Federal Communications Commission, an independent federal
agency, does not license broadcast networks, but issues them to
individual broadcast stations that are renewed on a staggered
basis for eight-year periods.
Comcast Corp, which owns NBC Universal, also owns 11 broadcast
stations, including outlets in New York, Washington, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas and Chicago.
A Comcast spokeswoman referred questions to NBC, which did not
immediately respond.
ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, declined to comment.
Shares in media companies fell, potentially reflecting concerns
the war of words could worsen. Comcast was down 0.8 percent,
while Disney shed 1.4 percent. CBS Corp fell 1.2 percent and
Twenty-First Century Fox slid 2.8 percent.
Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner called the market response
a "short-term irrational knee-jerk reaction" and said Trump
faced essentially insurmountable hurdles to getting licenses
pulled.
A spokesman for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai did not immediately
comment.
Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the National Association of
Broadcasters, defended the media's free speech rights.
"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,"
Smith said in a statement.
ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, declined to comment.
Numerous Democrats criticized Trump and urged Pai to denounce
Trump's comments.
Senator Ed Markey wrote Pai on Wednesday asking him to
"withstand any urges from President Trump to harm the news media
and infringe upon the First Amendment," a reference to the U.S.
Constitution's free speech and press freedom guarantee.
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Democratic U.S. Representative Frank Pallone said Trump "seemed to
threaten broadcasters' licenses only because he disagreed with their
reporting. This threat alone could intimidate the press and lead to
skewed and unfair reporting."
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel responded to Trump by tweeting
a link to an FCC fact sheet. "Not how it works," she said on
Twitter.
'FAIRNESS DOCTRINE'
When reviewing licenses the FCC must determine if a renewal is in
the public interest, according to an agency fact sheet on its
website.
The FCC said in the fact sheet it expects "station licensees to be
aware of the important problems and issues facing their local
communities and to foster public understanding by presenting
programming that relates to those local issues."
The agency does not issue similar licenses for cable networks such
as CNN and MSNBC, or regulate internet news or other websites.
The FCC has said the First Amendment "expressly prohibits the
commission from censoring broadcast matter" and that its role "in
overseeing program content is very limited."
In the early 1970s, then-President Richard Nixon and his top aides
discussed using the FCC's license renewal process as a way of
punishing the Washington Post for its coverage of the Watergate
burglary that ultimately brought down his presidency.
NBC News has reported on tensions between Trump and Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson, and has said Trump sought a dramatic increase
in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a meeting with national security
advisers in July. NBC reported Tillerson made his "moron" comment
after that meeting.
Trump on Saturday also suggested he should get "equal time" because
of what he described as late-night television hosts' "anti-Trump"
material.
The FCC's equal time rules apply in limited cases to air time for
political candidates and not to criticism of elected leaders.
Trump may have been referring to the "Fairness Doctrine" that was
designed to ensure broadcasters present opposing viewpoints about
public issues. Republican President Ronald Reagan's administration
eliminated it in 1987.
(Writing by Makini Brice and David Shepardson; Additional reporting
by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Jessical Toonkel in New York;
Editing by Frances Kerry, Paul Simao, Grant McCool)
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