President Trump has called on the Federal Communications Commission to punish an NBC journalist for describing his election endorsements as producing “mixed results,” marking the latest instance of the administration leaning on the agency to pressure news organizations it opposes.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Meet the Press host Kristen Welker “will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment” over what he characterized as a “purposeful inaccuracy.” He disputed her characterization of his endorsement record, citing recent wins he claimed placed his backed candidates at 100% for the U.S. Senate and 98% for the U.S. House.
“How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves?” Trump wrote, adding that “she is not the only one” and accusing what he called “the Radical Left News” of working to “harass, demean, and libel” him. In a separate post, he wrote that “THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL,” followed by “FCC TO THE RESCUE!”
Additional journalists targeted
The remarks about Welker were not isolated. Days earlier, Trump published a post attacking New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, describing her in personal terms and saying she “should be forced to turn over any and all money that she’s made through her fake reporting on me.” He repeatedly used a derogatory nickname in place of her name.
Trump’s message about Welker included an image intended to show near-perfect endorsement results this year. He directed his appeal to the agency’s leadership, writing that he hoped Chairman Brendan Carr and the commission “will take this Threat to our Country very seriously.” His suggestion that Welker “is not the only one” signaled that further referrals may follow.
A departure from prior FCC practice
The prospect of the FCC penalizing reporters for routine analysis of election outcomes conflicts with the agency’s stated positions. According to the FCC’s own website, the commission “cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view” and “generally will not intervene” in complaints about “one-sided news reports,” noting that doing so “would be inconsistent with the First Amendment.”
That stance held even during Trump’s first term. Then-Chairman Ajit Pai stated that under the First Amendment, “the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.” Pai made that comment less than a week after Trump urged the agency to strip broadcast licenses from NBC and other networks over what he labeled “fake news.”
The current environment differs under Carr, who has publicly aligned with Trump’s directives. Carr has stepped away from his earlier position, held under Democratic administrations, that the FCC must operate independently of White House influence.
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Image: arstechnica.com
