CNN: Network Execs Fear Retaliation By The Felon

CNN reports:

National networks like CBS are not licensed, but local stations are. (And the parent company of CBS, Paramount Global, owns some local stations.) The licensing agency is the government’s FCC, which grants eight-year license terms, and hasn’t denied any license renewal in decades. Still, there is a conceivable chilling effect. Trump’s threats have grown so insistent that some TV industry executives have speculated that they could be vulnerable to some sort of retaliation if Trump returns to power.

In response to CNN’s request for comment, the National Association of Broadcasters, the trade association for American TV and radio operators, said Trump’s rhetoric undermines First Amendment freedoms. Earlier in the year, he said of NBC and CNN, “they should have their licenses or whatever they have taken away.” CNN, which is distributed via cable, satellite and streaming services, is not licensed by the FCC like broadcast stations.

Trump also mixed-up broadcast and cable while attacking a different cable news network, MSNBC, in November 2023. He wrote on Truth Social that MSNBC “uses FREE government approved airwaves… for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE.” But MSNBC does not use those airwaves; only NBC’s local stations do. Trump has also vowed to place the FCC “back under presidential authority” — but any attempt to do so would stir legal battles.

Read the full article.

Here’s my story on the @CNN home page today:

“Trump’s growing threats to strip broadcast licenses send chills across industry”

Headline by editor @passantino https://t.co/eUCdaEyDKd

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 22, 2024