The Beloved leader and the Commie style dictatorship he is is intent on ushering in.
President Donald Trump today suggested that the Federal Communications Commission should challenge an NBC license because of "fake news."
"With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!" Trump tweeted.
Threats from public officials to stifle protected speech can violate the First Amendment. Adam Steinbaugh, who previously practiced law and is now a writer and free speech advocate, pointed to a federal appeals court decision from 2003 that tackles this subject.
The court decision said:
[A] public-official defendant who threatens to employ coercive state power to stifle protected speech violates a plaintiff's First Amendment rights even if the public-official defendant lacks direct regulatory or decision-making authority over the plaintiff or a third party that facilitates the plaintiff's speech.
Trump's threat came shortly after he claimed an NBC news story about his nuclear ambitions is "pure fiction." NBC reported that Trump "said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation's highest-ranking national security leaders."
The White House has previously confirmed that Trump's tweets are official statements from the president.
Trump also told reporters today that "it is frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write." (Trump can blame the First Amendment for that.)
UPDATE: A few hours after this story published, Trump intensified his call for network licenses to be challenged and possibly revoked in a new tweet. "Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!" Trump tweeted.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn also responded to Trump's call for challenging licenses, tweeting, "Revoking a broadcast license on such grounds will only happen if we fail to abide by the First Amendment." Clyburn and Rosenworcel are the only two Democrats on the commission
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...c-off-the-air/