Donald Trump returned to familiar terrain in a Truth Social post, again calling on broadcast networks to lose their licenses over what he deemed unfair coverage.
The president’s target this time was ABC and NBC, and he added another element: Calling for the networks to be charged license fees for their use of the airwaves.
In a Truth Social post late on Sunday, Trump wrote, “Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren’t paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES. They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!”
Trump did not specify what coverage triggered him, but he has multiple times in the past called for networks to lose their licenses over news reports.
In his first term, when he suggested the NBC lose their license, Ajit Pai, who Trump selected as his FCC chair, pushed back, saying that the agency “under the law does not have the authority to revoke the license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.”
The FCC licenses individual stations, not networks.
Brendan Carr, who Trump appointed to serve as FCC chair this term, has revived complaints against broadcasters over their content, including the way that CBS’ 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris. When the FCC approved the Skydance-Paramount merger, he championed the company’s commitments to “ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.”
An FCC spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. Comcast, parent company of NBC, and Disney, parent of ABC, also have not commented.
The FCC’s authority over news content is “narrow.” The Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to present a a range of viewpoints, was abandoned in 1987. Per the FCC website, “The agency is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.”
The FCC collects regulatory fees from license holders to cover the cost of the agency’s salaries and expenses. That totaled $390.1 million for fiscal year 2025, according to the latest assessment. About $51.2 million would come from broadcasters, with their fees based on the size of the population they serve.
The idea of charging broadcasters for the use of spectrum is not entirely new. Last year, just before the election, Elon Musk posted on X, “The legacy broadcast networks are using public spectrum, but act as an extension of the Democratic Party. No more free lunch for them.” Musk had been responding to complaints of bias at the networks.
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