President Trump suggested Wednesday that media companies which report critically on him should be punished by having their television station licenses revoked.
In a tweet, the president decried the supposed "fake news coming out of NBC and the Networks." He asked, "At what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!"
Trump seems to have been furious over an NBC News report that said he wanted a tenfold increase in the U.S.' nuclear arsenal. Earlier in the morning he claimed the story was "pure fiction" and "made up to demean."
Trump's veiled threat may contribute to the increasingly chilly atmosphere journalists in the U.S. are working under during his administration. But his threat is essentially toothless.
First of all, there is no single license for NBC or any other national television network. Licenses are granted to individual local stations -- and NBC doesn't even own most of the stations that broadcast its content across the country. And it is extremely unusual for any station's license to be taken away for any reason, much less for a political vendetta.
The licenses for local television stations are subject to review by the Federal Communications Commission every eight years.
It would not be possible for Trump or his allies to challenge all of the licenses held by NBC in one fell swoop. Individuals who reside in the areas the local channel airs would have to submit complaints to the FCC.
There is precedent for political allies of a president challenging local licenses. It happened under Richard Nixon in the 1970s, when a friend of Nixon's tried to take over a license held by the Washington Post.
Nixon's ally did not succeed in his bid. Short of gross misconduct on the part of a challenged station, it's unlikely any such attempt now would be successful either.
"Whatever other legal problems [NBC parent] Comcast may have, this is not one of them," Andrew Jay Schwartzman, an attorney who works at the Georgetown University Law Center and specializes in telecommunications law, told CNN. "Comcast knows full well that the FCC will never, ever, deny its license renewal applications."
The FCC is technically an independent body, not subject to the president's orders. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai -- who is a Republican appointed to his current post by Trump -- said in March that his job is not to be a "political actor."
"It is simply to be somebody at the FCC who, as I said, is administering the laws of the United States," Pai said. "I'm simply not going to wade into that kind of political debate."
Neither Pai nor an FCC spokesperson immediately responded to requests for comment about Trump's tweet.
A spokesperson for NBC declined to comment.
Trump has increased his attacks on the media in the past week. Last week, he urged the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate news outlets for publishing supposed "fake" stories. Over the weekend, he hinted it was perhaps time for a law like the now-eliminated Fairness Doctrine, which would require broadcasters to give equal time to both sides of the political debate when discussing public policy.
