CBS News is in disarray. The internal revolt from woke staff after a journalist dared ask a far-left, anti-Israel author tough questions has disgraced the network and turned it into a laughing stock after management caved to the angry progressive mob.
Meanwhile, at the very same time the network is throwing a journalist under the bus for doing his job and claiming that his interview “didn’t meet editorial standards,” CBS’s 60 Minutes is coming under fire for deceptively editing its recent interview with Vice President Kamala Harris to remove her incoherent word salad and make her look better. But, apparently, that’s not a violation of CBS’s “standards.”
It’s safe to say it’s been a tough couple of weeks for CBS. But, now, things are looking even worse for the network, as former President Donald Trump just came out and said its broadcast license should be revoked because he dislikes its coverage.
“Her REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer in order to save her or, at least, make her look better,” Trump wrote Thursday in a post on Truth Social. “A FAKE NEWS SCAM, which is totally illegal. TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE.”
Hours later, he repeated his call for CBS to lose its license.
“CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS—and maybe even WORSE!” Trump added in another post.
Trump is right to feel aggrieved by the demonstrable left-wing bias shown by CBS News in recent weeks. But broadcasting something misleading is not, in fact, illegal, and revoking a network’s license because of its politics actually would be.
The First Amendment explicitly protects the freedom of the press, which necessarily includes the freedom of press organizations to publish materials that infuriate politicians or that politicians view as misleading or inaccurate. For a government official to target a news outlet for retribution because he dislikes its coverage would be authoritarian, un-American, and, yes, unconstitutional.
“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
Rosenworcel is right. Trump and his supporters have every right to criticize and even boycott CBS News. But in calling for the government to shut down the network and revoke its license, the former president crosses a bright red line. Such an authoritarian action, if somehow allowed to stand, would set a precedent that would almost certainly come back to haunt conservatives and Republicans.
After all, if a Republican president can target liberal-leaning networks and revoke their licenses, the next Democratic president could do the same to, say, conservative talk radio stations that spread right-wing news and commentary across the country. Democrats could surely find some right-wing media story to label a “fake news scam” as their trumped-up justification.
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Do Republicans really want to go down this dark path?
Trump supporters, including the likes of X owner Elon Musk, regularly cite the Democratic Party’s open hostility to free speech and the First Amendment as reasons to rally behind the former president. But that case is no longer compelling when Trump himself demonstrates such disdain for our most fundamental freedoms.
Brad Polumbo is the co-founder of BASEDPolitics and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.