WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Askume) – The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has rejected former U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion to allow Walt Disney’s ABC to host the Sept. 10 presidential debate because the company would lose its broadcast license .
“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The Commission will not revoke a broadcast station’s license simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes the broadcast station’s content or coverage,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday.
The FCC is an independent federal agency that does not issue licenses for broadcast networks, but instead issues them to individual broadcast stations, which are renewed for eight years.
Trump claimed the debate was “rigged” as the ABC News host fact-checked many of his comments.
“He should have his license revoked for what he did,” Trump told Fox News.
The Trump campaign and Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The statement by Democrat Rosenworcel came after Senators Ed Markey and Ron Wyden asked all five FCC commissioners to comment on Trump’s remarks.
The two senators, both Democrats, said the former president’s “threat to revoke the FCC’s license because he was dissatisfied with the way ABC conducted its debates is a serious threat to the First Amendment and goes against the mission of the FCC.”
Republican FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr said during a House hearing Thursday that he would always make decisions based on the law and the First Amendment, but that if he believed the FCC had grounds to revoke ABC’s license after debate, he would answer in the negative.
In 2017, then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican who served as FCC chairman after being appointed by Trump, denied Trump ‘s tweet that the FCC would investigate NBC’s license because it published Trump’s so-called false report.
“Under my leadership, the FCC will continue to support the First Amendment,” Pai said.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
When reviewing a license, the FCC must determine whether renewal is in the public interest. The court held that First Amendment rights prevented the FCC from revoking a license based on editorial judgments.
Rosenworcel said the FCC license review “does not involve the government making editorial decisions about content. To do so would be an affront to our First Amendment heritage.”
