Dem
52
Ties
1
GOP
47
NBC's Meet the Press host, Kristen Welker, recently said that Donald Trump will loom large over the midterms (we agree; see next item). She also said he had "some mixed results" in the primaries, pointing out that his endorsees Ken Paxton and Julia Letlow won their races but Burt Jones and Randy Feenstra did not. Those are simple statements of fact, but Trump didn't like them, so he bleated on his social media site for the Sons of Mussolini: "Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment." He also noted that he hoped that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr "will take this Threat to our Country very seriously." Why is he capitalizing nouns? Which Country? We can think of only one country where the people there capitalize all nouns.
NBC did respond by saying: "Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her." Is Trump merely trying to intimidate the media or does he have Uncle Scrooge-type dollar signs in his eyes?
Carr has been Trump's media enforcer. He has said he would revoke broadcast licenses if a company runs fake news. Under the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC has the authority to monitor licensed stations to see that they serve the public interest. It has not revoked a license for 40 years. No court would agree to a revocation because a journalist said something the administration didn't like. And certainly not if the statement was provably true.
A journalist making a statement of fact was previously covered by the First Amendment, but the only amendments Trump seems to know about are the Second and Fifth. Definitely not the 14th and 25th. Maybe NBC will stand tall and stare Trump down, but previous encounters between media companies and Trump have not been encouraging. (V)