Could the government pull a TV station off the air over its news coverage? Trump’s comments raise the question

Recent threats from Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr have revived a long-running debate about how much power regulators actually have over TV news organizations.

[Source Photo: Pexels]

Over the weekend, the Trump administration threatened the broadcast licenses of news organizations that it claims are reporting unfair or distorted news about the war in Iran. On March 15, the president himself backed up Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, who made the initial threats.

“I am so thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “They get Billions of Dollars of FREE American Airwaves, and use it to perpetuate LIES, both in News and almost all of their Shows, including the Late Night Morons, who get gigantic Salaries for horrible Ratings, and never get, as I used to say in The Apprentice, ‘FIRED.’”

During a Pentagon briefing on March 13, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took aim at CNN, saying, “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” referring to the recent acquisition of CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, by Paramount. Ellison is Paramount’s CEO and a Trump ally.

But coverage of the Iran war has clearly struck a nerve with the administration, which is now making large and broad threats against news organizations in a markedly unprecedented way. The question: Do those threats carry any weight? Not really, experts say.

Do the threats actually carry legal weight?

“Carr’s threats don’t have much legal teeth,” says Tara Puckey, president and CEO of the Radio Television Digital News Association. “The FCC regulates obscenity and technical operations, not editorial decisions. Courts have been clear on that for decades. If [Carr] tries to pull a license over news coverage, he’s going to lose. And he knows that.”

Puckey says that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be a downstream effect of the threats. “The chilling effect is the strategy. If local stations start pulling punches on stories—especially smaller [stations] that can’t afford a prolonged legal fight—Carr wins without ever setting foot in a courtroom. You don’t need a legal victory when fear does the work for you.”

Why local broadcasters are most vulnerable

Local TV stations are the ones on the front lines of the FCC’s war against broadcasters. Despite the administration’s aversion to news organizations like CNN, the FCC’s reach applies only to over-the-air broadcasters, like local news affiliates, rather than cable networks.

Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin on Turning AI Into a Competitive Advantage

© Fast Company