By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump reiterated a long-running push for the Federal Communications Commission to revoke station licenses of two major U.S. broadcasters and charge them for using the public airwaves, as he criticized their news programming.
Trump suggested late on Sunday on social media that Disney-owned ABC and Comcast-owned NBC are biased and mostly air “bad stories” about him, and as a result, should, “according to many, have their licenses revoked by the FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful.”
The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.
Disney declined to comment. Comcast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump also suggested broadcasters should be required to pay millions of dollars in license fees for the broadcast spectrum they use. David Sacks, who is now a White House adviser, said in October spectrum used by the networks “should be auctioned off, with the proceeds used to pay down the national debt.”
FCC Chair Brendan Carr did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has taken a series of steps to investigate broadcasters. “The media industry across this country needs a course correction,” he said last month.
Last month, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the $8.4-billion merger between CBS parent Paramount Global and Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming is free of bias and hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints, a factor Carr cited in his decision to approve the deal.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said the FCC was imposing “never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.”
Soon after being designated chair by Trump in January, Carr reinstated a complaint about a CBS “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as complaints about how ABC News moderated the pre-election televised debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump and against NBC for allowing Harris to appear on “Saturday Night Live” shortly before the election.
During Trump’s first term, then FCC Chair Ajit Pai rejected Trump’s repeated suggestions he go after broadcasters.
“Under the law, the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content,” Pai said in 2017. “The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment.”
In March, Carr said he was investigating the diversity practices of Disney and its ABC unit. Carr last month opened a probe into Comcast’s relationship with its local broadcast TV affiliates.
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(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Rod Nickel)
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