Trump Accuses Broadcast News of Unlawful Reporting on Him Negatively
In a recent development, President Donald Trump has expressed his discontent with the network news coverage of his administration, labelling it as 'illegal' due to what he perceives as a predominantly negative slant. This criticism comes in the wake of comments made by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr earlier this week, who threatened ABC and its affiliates with potential action if they fail to take action on Jimmy Kimmel's show.
The Media Research Center, a watchdog group on the right, claimed in April that 92% of the coverage on the major networks in the first 100 days of Trump's presidency was negative. This negative coverage has been a recurring theme, with Trump citing a report stating that news coverage of him is 97% negative.
Trump's concerns over free speech have been focused on ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's show. In a podcast on Wednesday, Benny Johnson featured comments from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about the furor over Kimmel's remark. Carr, the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has targeted networks and media companies as FCC chair, focusing on issues ranging from news coverage to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
The FCC has narrow authority over news content and is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press. However, Trump's comments and Carr's threats have sparked a significant backlash. There have been protests outside Disney's studio in Burbank, and figures including Barack Obama and Michael Eisner have spoken out against the potential actions.
Trump believes that negative network news coverage constitutes 'cheating' and that networks are 'offshoots of the Democrat National Committee.' He has suggested that more of news coverage should reflect the size of his election win, while claiming that reporting on networks has been '97% bad.' Trump has previously called for networks to lose their broadcast licenses.
ABC later announced that the show would be taken off the air 'indefinitely.' Following Carr's comments, Nexstar announced that it was pulling Kimmel's show 'for the foreseeable future.' The future of Kimmel's show and the broader implications of Trump's criticism of network news coverage remain to be seen.
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