Trump Wants the FCC to Revoke CBS' Broadcast License for Running Stories Critical of Him

Apr 15, 2025

Donald Trump is openly declaring that news coverage he doesn’t like is “illegal” and should be punished by revoking his critics’ broadcast licenses.

CNN has the story:

On Sunday night, he depicted 60 Minutes, the most-watched newsmagazine in the country, in similar terms, writing, “They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing.”
He also wrote that CBS “should lose their license” after the network aired two stories on Sunday—one about Ukraine and another about Greenland. The CBS network is not licensed by the FCC, but local stations owned by CBS are. During the 2024 campaign, Trump said many times that networks he disliked should be stripped of their licenses.
He has repeated the call twice since taking office, and CBS has been the target both times.

These social media posts specifically directed Trump’s order to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Considering Trump’s rejection of the independence of executive agencies like the FCC, it’s clear that Trump will eventually expect this order to be carried out.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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