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October 2017

President Trump Can’t Pull NBC’s ‘License’ – But That Doesn’t Mean Stations Are Safe

President Trump’s threat to pull NBC’s license doesn’t make sense for a lot of reasons — starting with the fact that NBC doesn’t have a license to begin with. But it is still alarming to news outlets, because federal regulations aren’t clear about whether federal regulators can intervene to stop “fake” news.

You might assume the First Amendment protects all reporting. But current Federal Communications Commission language leaves open the possibility of government intervention, under certain narrow conditions. “The president has no authority to direct the FCC to revoke a broadcast license,” said former Federal Communications Commission lawyer Robert Corn-Revere. “The FCC is an independent regulatory agency.” But presidents can still exert influence — especially since they appoint all five FCC commissioners. And the FCC may exert influence, too. But no one can say for sure how heavy its hand might be. The FCC states on its website that it will investigate stations accused of deliberately distorting the news, but that the burden of proof is high. The commission says it will generally not intervene in cases in which viewers believe stations have “aired inaccurate or one-sided news reports or comments, covered stories inadequately, or overly dramatized the events that they cover” because “it would be inconsistent with the First Amendment to replace the journalistic judgment of licensees with our own.” The FCC’s policy on intentional “distortion” is a troubling one for television companies, according to Mark Schnieder, a former FCC lawyer and adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law School.

FCC Reauthorization Bill Referred to Full Committee

The House Communications Subcommittee on Oct 11 marked up a bipartisan discussion draft of legislation reauthorizing the Federal Communications Commission and made short work of it, voting unanimously to refer the draft to the full House Commerce Committee and taking less than a half hour to do it. It will be the first reauthorization of the agency in more than 25 years. Reauthorization is a chance to legislate various changes in how the FCC does business, including process reforms and, in one particular instance broadcasters are following closely, how it repacks TV stations post-auction.

One reason for the smooth sailing is that some amendments will not be introduced until the full committee mark-up and the various provisions already in the draft include bills backed by Democratic Reps, including boosting public safety, wireless coverage data collection, cybersecurity, and bipartisan FCC process reform language that has twice passed the House. Rep Anna Eshoo's (D-CA) FCC Collaboration Act is also included, which would allow more than two commissioners to meet outside of public meetings so long as certain sunshine criteria are met. "I don’t know how many [times] I have introduced that in," Rep Eshoo said. "Maybe this is the magic year for that." Citing some of those provisions, Full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said in his opening statement that the draft was "a good first start," but added, "We still have critical work to do before I can support reporting this bill out of the full committee." Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA) said the bill was a good-faith, bipartisan effort by the majority, but also said it needed improving. That mark-up is likely to be longer and more contentious.

President Trump to nominate Kelly's White House deputy as DHS secretary

The White House announced that President Donald Trump will nominate Kirstjen Nielsen to run the Department of Homeland Security. Nielsen served as White House chief of staff John Kelly’s top aide during his time as DHS secretary and moved with him to the West Wing as his principal deputy chief of staff when he was appointed in July, leaving the Cabinet post vacant. Nielsen, 45, is a cybersecurity expert and an attorney with an extensive background in homeland security, including stints at the Transportation Security Administration and on the White House Homeland Security Council under President George W. Bush.

NBC News defends Trump nuke story after White House denial

NBC News is defending its report that President Donald Trump wanted a massive expansion of the US nuclear arsenal after Defense Secretary James Mattis pushed back on those claims. Courtney Kube, a national security producer for NBC News, said the report never said President Trump "called for" more nuclear weapons, rather only that he "said he wanted more." NBC reported earlier Oct 11 that Trump suggested dramatically expanding the country's nuclear capabilities — from roughly 4,000 to 32,000 warheads — after seeing data that showed the US weapons stockpile decreasing from that level since the 1960s.

Defense Secretary James Mattis in a statement hit back at the NBC report, saying President Trump never "called for" an increase in the nuclear arsenal. "Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible,” Sec Mattis said.

President Trump does not value or understand how a free press works

President Donald Trump made two things clear when he told reporters gathered in the Oval Office that “it's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it.” One: He does not value a free press. Two: He does not even understand how a free press works.

It is simply untrue that “the press is able to write whatever they want to write.” News outlets that defame or invade the privacy of the people they cover can be sued into extinction. Just ask Gawker, which went bankrupt and shuttered last year after losing a case brought by Hulk Hogan.

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