President Donald Trump suggested last week that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should revoke ABC News’ license after Mary Bruce, ABC’s White House correspondent, asked him pointed questions about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Trump described ABC as a “terrible company” and proposed the FCC as the appropriate body to punish the network.
This was not the first time Trump has floated removing a broadcaster’s license. According to an analysis by The Guardian, he has proposed revoking a television network’s license at least 28 times over the past eight years.
However, the FCC does not issue licenses to national networks themselves. Instead, the commission grants licenses to local television stations that are owned by or affiliated with those networks, which limits the agency’s ability to directly revoke a national network’s authorization.
Anna M. Gómez, the lone Democrat on the FCC, said after a commission meeting last week that the president’s threats are hollow. “Aside from the ability to make things difficult for those who push back, the FCC is incapable of actually retaliating against a news network,” she said, noting that no local station licenses are due for renewal “anytime soon.” (The Guardian)
