FCC commissioner says Trump call to revoke ABC, NBC licenses is unconstitutional

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) – The lone Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission on Friday criticized President Donald Trump’s call for Disney-owned ABC and Comcast unit NBC to lose their broadcast licenses for refusing to air his speech.

In a nearly half-hour prime-time address Thursday, the Republican president revived many of his longstanding claims that U.S. elections are unreliable. In the statement, Trump said that the station licenses of channels that did not broadcast his speech should be revoked.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who serves with two Republicans on the commission, called Trump’s call “ridiculous” on Friday because the broadcasters made “the same editorial decisions they have made under presidents of both parties.”

“These editorial decisions are protected by the First Amendment, and the FCC has no authority to penalize a station that refuses to broadcast blatantly political speech,” he said in a statement. “This is a clear attempt to bully broadcasters, and the FCC should have no part in it.”

Revoking a broadcaster’s license requires a multi-step process and a decision by an administrative law judge that can be appealed to the full FCC and the courts.

Experts say networks have broad First Amendment rights to decide what to air. But historically, they have delivered most presidential speeches on the grounds that they provide publicly important information.

Broadcast networks refused to air remarks from Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, officials said.

“In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news said they would not air this conversation,” Trump said on Thursday, adding: “A scam like this should mean revoking their licenses.”

Trump has repeatedly called on the FCC to revoke NBC and ABC’s licenses.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman)