President Trump retains threatening the licenses of native TV stations, however his authorities has restricted energy to observe by means of on these threats.
The FCC has not denied any license renewal in a long time. And any transfer to revoke a station license would lead to prolonged, protracted authorized challenges. “But the threats are the point,” because the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, Anna M. Gomez, wrote on X this week.
In different phrases, Trump can’t really cease native stations from broadcasting reveals he doesn’t like, however he can use his bully pulpit to strain media firms into submission and self-censorship.
Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner summarized it effectively in an X submit on Friday that FCC chair Brendan Carr’s current menace over “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was “aggressive yet hollow.”
Eisner took a shot at present Disney CEO Bob Iger’s choice to droop Kimmel’s present, asking, “Where has all the leadership gone? If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment?”
Iger’s subsequent transfer vis-à-vis Kimmel is unclear. The late-night present has been off the air since Wednesday as ABC tries to discover a path ahead.
The Kimmel drama has highlighted the Trump administration’s extraordinary efforts to crack down on leisure and information content material that the president disfavors.
The FCC, the once-independent federal company that regulates broadcasters, is now following Trump’s media-bashing lead.
While yanking a license isn’t a authorized possibility for the FCC, the company does have one highly effective level of leverage over the stations it regulates. The leverage exists each time a TV or radio station proprietor desires to accumulate or switch a station license. The FCC has the ability to approve or reject such offers.
That’s why Paramount, the proprietor of the CBS community and many native CBS stations, was so susceptible to Trump’s strain earlier this yr. Paramount wanted FCC chair Brendan Carr’s approval to finish a merger with Skydance Media. Paramount executives suspected that Carr delayed his evaluate of the deal whereas Trump’s attorneys negotiated with Paramount attorneys to settle a lawsuit Trump had filed over the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes.”
Paramount finally agreed to pay $16 million towards Trump’s future presidential library to make the legally doubtful lawsuit go away. Within a matter of days, Carr allowed the Paramount Skydance deal to go ahead, although he insisted the evaluate course of was unrelated to the settlement.
The similar dynamic is on show now as Disney, the proprietor of the ABC community and some native ABC stations, tries to unravel its late-night TV downside.
Nexstar and Sinclair
The first TV station proprietor to talk out against Kimmel on Wednesday was Nexstar, which has about two dozen ABC-affiliated stations throughout the nation.
Many business analysts identified that Nexstar is about to hunt FCC approval for a proposed merger with one other station group proprietor, Tegna.
The merger would enhance Nexstar’s share of the native TV market and exceed the present authorized restrict, requiring an FCC waiver or rule change from Carr.
Nexstar has denied that its government group spoke with anybody on the FCC earlier than deciding to sentence Kimmel and preempt his present. But the executives had been virtually actually conscious of Carr’s public remarks about station licenses. Their justification for taking motion on Wednesday night intently mirrored Carr’s personal feedback earlier within the day.
Within hours, one other massive station group proprietor, Sinclair, put out an much more forceful assertion against Kimmel. Sinclair was reportedly eager about inserting a rival bid for Tegna, and has lately mentioned it could promote a few of its stations, so it additionally has purpose to remain within the FCC’s good graces.
Thus, it’s little surprise why Nexstar and Sinclair slathered affection on Carr and Trump when the Kimmel controversy erupted. The protracted authorities evaluate of the Paramount merger signaled to the media market that the Trump-era FCC is working transactionally.
Public curiosity teams and Democratic politicians have cried foul — Senator Edward J. Markey on Friday mentioned the FCC has change into the “Federal Censorship Commission” — however Carr has embraced the struggle, similar to the president who appointed him.
Lawyers and analysts have speculated that some main media firms will hesitate to pursue mergers and acquisitions in the interim as a result of Trump administration’s aggressive strategy. In addition to FCC evaluate of station transfers, mergers might additionally set off Justice Department examination.
But fears concerning the authorities revoking an current license, or forcing a station to be bought to a Trump-approved purchaser, are extra of a stretch.
“Taking away a broadcast license has so many legal obstacles and takes so long that the FCC doesn’t even try,” public curiosity lawyer Andrew Jay Schwartzman advised NCS. “The solely exceptions are small radio stations and contain felonious conduct or extreme misrepresentations within the software studies to the FCC, and by no means about program content material.
“No large broadcaster has lost a license since the 1980s,” he mentioned, “and that was for bribery.”
Trump and Carr might attempt anyway, however the authorized battle would drag on for years, and the “Communications Act gives licensees broad protection,” he added.
Congress might transfer to alter the legislation and develop the FCC’s regulatory powers, although Republicans are extra usually aligned with efforts in the wrong way. The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, for instance, mentioned in a Thursday editorial that the federal government ought to take the FCC “out of the business of regulating media.”
Even a few of Trump’s fiercest allies agree. “If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives,” Senator Ted Cruz mentioned Friday.