Former President Donald Trump often basks in the glow of press attention. Just as often, he trashes the press and threatens journalists.
On the campaign trail and in interviews, Trump has suggested that if he regains the White House, he will exact vengeance on news outlets that anger him.
More specifically, Trump has pledged to toss reporters in jail and strip major television networks of their broadcast licenses as retribution for coverage he didn't like.
"It speaks directly to the First Amendment — and the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy," Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, tells NPR.
To be clear, the government does not license national networks like those targeted by Trump, but the FCC does license local TV and radio stations to use the public airwaves.
"While the FCC has authority to provide licenses for television and radio, it is pretty fundamental that we do not take them away because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes any kind of content or coverage," Rosenworcel says.
Trump's declarations arrive at a time of increasing concern about his more autocratic impulses. And press advocates say he is intentionally fueling a climate hostile to independent reporting.
One in three journalists says they've faced violence — or the threat of it
"President Trump was a champion for free speech. Everyone was safer under President Trump, including journalists," a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee wrote to NPR in response to questions about these concerns.
Even so, a new survey of hundreds of journalists who received safety training from the International Women's Media Foundation finds 36% say they have faced or been threatened with physical violence on the job — and they have felt especially threatened at Trump campaign rallies.
"Journalists reported feeling at high risk while covering Trump rallies and 'Stop the Steal' protests, especially when some Trump supporters and protestors openly carry weapons," the report states.
While campaigning for Republican congressional candidates in 2022, Trump repeatedly pledged to jail reporters who don't identify confidential sources on stories he considered to have national security implications.
He joked that the prospect of prison rape would loosen reporters' lips about their sources.
"When this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner shortly, he will say, 'I'd very much like to tell you exactly who that was,'" Trump told an appreciative crowd at a Texas rally. And Trump said he wouldn't limit it to the reporters: "The publisher too — or the top editors." He made the same claim two weeks later at an Ohio rally.
Threats to investigate TV networks — and take them off the air
Last year, Trump called for NBC News to be investigated for treason over its coverage of criminal charges he faces. After his lone debate with Vice President Harris this summer, it was ABC's turn to face Trump's wrath. Trump expressed anger over moderators' decision to fact-check him. He popped up on Fox & Friends the next day with a warning.
"I think ABC took a big hit last night," Trump said. "I mean, to be honest, they're a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They oughta take away their license for the way they do that."
This month, Trump has been back at it, slamming CBS repeatedly over its handling of the vice presidential debate and of the network's interview with Harris on 60 Minutes. He pointed to two versions of an answer Harris had given — one that aired on 60 Minutes and the other on the show Face the Nation — to argue CBS was deceiving viewers to aid the Democrat.
"Think of this," Trump told attendees at a rally in Aurora, Colo., this month. "CBS gets a license. And a license is based on honesty. I think they have to take their license away. I do."
And on Sunday, Trump repeated his complaint to Fox News' Howard Kurtz. "It's the biggest scandal I have ever seen for a broadcaster," Trump said. "60 Minutes, I think it should be taken off the air, frankly."
CBS and 60 Minutes rejected the claim that the network had deceitfully manipulated Harris' interview because it had shown a shorter excerpt of her answer to the same question on 60 Minutes. "The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment," it said in a statement Sunday evening.
Again, news organizations do not need licenses to operate — unless they are local TV or radio stations. The parent companies of CBS, ABC and NBC own more than 80 local stations among them. All three declined comment for this story.
A vow to bring an independent agency under the president's control
The Federal Communications Commission was set up 90 years ago as an independent agency. While Rosenworcel was appointed chairwoman by President Biden, she is not subject to his directive or that of any president. The FCC receives funding and oversight from Congress.
Last year, however, Trump posted a video on social media promising to bring the agency under full White House control.
"I will bring the independent regulatory agencies such as the FCC and the FTC back under presidential authority as the Constitution demands," Trump said, though such an effort would assuredly face a legal challenge. "These agencies do not get to become a fourth branch of government issuing rules and edicts all by themselves — and that's what they've been doing."
Several former television network executives, asking for anonymity to avoid getting pulled into the campaign, said that they feared the consequences of Trump's stance on pursuing reporters' secret sources more than the threats to pull the broadcast licenses.
In recent decades, digital fingerprints have made it easier for investigators to track down contacts between government employees and journalists.
Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, prosecutors pursuing charges against leakers have sought such records from reporters. (Previously, presidential candidates have not raised the question on the campaign trail — except now for Trump.)
After taking office, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland shifted policy, effectively barring the Justice Department's practice of subpoenaing journalists' records, except in rare cases.
At The New York Times, leaders are girding for what could happen under a president more hostile to the media.
"[Publisher A.G. Sulzberger] devoted a team of people and a significant effort to looking at the ways in which the rule of law — protections for the press — could be worn away by either authoritarian leaders or by populist leaders who rally their supporters against independent media," Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn recently told NPR's Steve Inskeep. "We shouldn't pretend that they're only vulnerable in a place like Hungary or Turkey. ... They are also vulnerable here."
As president, Trump aided allies such as Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox News. (Trump recently said on Fox & Friends that he would ask Murdoch to stop Fox News from airing the Harris campaigns' negative ads about him.)
Trump also tried to punish media outlets that were critical of him. His administration sought to block the takeover of CNN's parent company. It also tried to deny a cloud computing contract for Amazon, which was founded by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
"It's the frequency of these attacks on the First Amendment that strike me most," Rosenworcel, the FCC's chairwoman, says.
As a federal employee, Rosenworcel says, she almost invariably refrains from public comment on political matters during election season. But she says she could not let this pass unacknowledged.
Similarly, Rosenworcel criticized the threats of prosecution made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration against local television stations that run ads advocating greater abortion rights in the state. The Florida Department of Health attorney who sent the letters to the Florida TV stations has resigned, saying he was ordered by DeSantis aides to send the letters .
"We can't let this be normal," Rosenworcel says of threats to press independence. "If you want to maintain a democracy, you have to speak up for it."
NPR Investigative Correspondent Tom Dreisbach contributed to this story.
Copyright 2024 NPR
