Trump's threat to pull broadcast licenses blocked

President Donald Trump and his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr have a pretty big barrier to their threats to pull network broadcast licenses after negative coverage of the war against Iran.

In a post on X Saturday, Carr wrote that broadcasters “that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

He complained that it was "time for change" because "legacy media" had "fallen to an all time (sic) low of just 9 percent and are ratings disasters."

Carr didn't get into the specifics of which program had fallen to 9 percent, when it fell, what the numbers were before and after, nor did he include any additional context about competition. One of the biggest competitors of network TV news has been cable news, streaming and social media.

"The American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation’s airwaves. It is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news. When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong. It means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can’t allow that to happen."

In a Truth Social post on Sunday night, Trump agreed, saying he was “thrilled” that Carr was “looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations. They get Billions of Dollars of FREE American Airwaves, and use it to perpetuate LIES …”

FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez released a statement saying that Carr and Trump can threaten all they want, but that their licenses aren't up until 2028.

"Once again, this FCC pretends it has the power to control news coverage," Gomez said in her statement. "In reality, the FCC has vanishingly little power over national news networks. It licenses local broadcast stations, not networks, and no licenses are up for renewal until 2028. Early renewal attempts are exceedingly rare, and the process is so demanding that any effort would almost certainly fail, especially given the well-documented First Amendment violations underlying these moves. These threats are grounded in neither reality nor law and would not survive judicial scrutiny, just as other recent attempts by this Administration to push beyond constitutional limits have repeatedly failed in court."

"The concern over the chilling effect of these actions, however, is very real. Over the past year, this FCC has attacked the media as part of a years-long campaign by this Administration and its allies to discredit factual, independent coverage while blaming the press for growing public distrust. Meanwhile, it is the FCC's own credibility and public trust that are rapidly eroding," she continued.

She went on to cite politically motivated investigations of critics and commentators; however, none have resulted in any actual action. She called it a pattern from the Trump administration, where there are threats that chill behavior and others "capitulate in advance."

Trump complained that images and videos from artificial intelligence had flooded social media and are fooling Americans about the realities of what's going on in the Middle East. One of those videos criticized by some came from the White House, which used clips from video games interspersed with military videos to promote U.S. bombing.