President Donald Trump has said that NBC and ABC should be “terminated” over what he called biased coverage of Republicans and conservatives.
Trump criticized the networks in two posts on his social media site, Truth Social, on Aug. 24.
“Why is it that ABC and NBC fake news, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren’t paying Millions of Dollars a year in license fees[?] They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!” he wrote, partly in all capitals.
ABC News and NBC News are national networks and do not have Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses for news content. They provide programming for local affiliates, which are regulated by the FCC and require licensing to operate in the United States.
In another post, Trump said ABC News and NBC News should no longer have licenses, saying that they parrot Democratic Party propaganda.
“Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC fake news, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% bad stories. If that is the case, they are simply an arm of the Democrat Party and 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, an actual threat to our Democracy!!!” he wrote, using all capitals for much of the message.
As of April 9, 92 percent of ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News’ coverage of Trump was negative, according to the Media Research Center, which monitors and documents media bias.
The Epoch Times has reached out to ABC, NBC, and CBS for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
In an earlier post on Aug. 24, Trump questioned the credibility of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, once a Trump ally. On ABC News’ “This Week,” where he is a contributor, Christie criticized Trump over last week’s FBI operation at the home of former Trump adviser John Bolton.
In the same post, Trump criticized ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl.
In February, Trump limited the press access of the Associated Press. He banned the news wire from the White House press pool, which covers the president in areas where space is limited, such as the Oval Office and Air Force One, over its refusal to solely use the term “Gulf of America” for what was formerly the Gulf of Mexico.
The Associated Press, which says it uses “Gulf of Mexico” while “acknowledging the new name,” went to court to have its access reinstated. A federal judge ruled that its access could be reinstated, but an appeals court in July declined to withdraw the ban.
Trump also signed a $9 billion rescissions bill last month that stripped federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)—both of which have come under fire from critics for being biased against Republicans. Previously, Trump signed an executive order to end funding for NPR and PBS. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced this month that it will begin “an orderly wind down of its operations.”
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