Trump’s attack on CBS News is dangerous and short-sighted

Meanwhile, the network is simultaneously slamming a journalist for doing his job and claiming his interview “did not meet editorial standards,” according to CBS 60 minutes is coming under fire for misleadingly editing her recent interview with Vice President Kamala Harris to eliminate her incoherent word salad and make her look better. But apparently this isn’t a violation of CBS’ “standards.”

It’s safe to say it’s been a rough few weeks for CBS. But now things are looking even worse for the network, as former President Donald Trump just came out and said his broadcast license should be revoked because he doesn’t like the coverage.

“Their REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY OR STUPID, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer to save it or at least make it look better,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “A FAKE NEWS SCAM that is completely illegal. Take away the CBS license.”

Hours later, he repeated his demand that CBS lose its license.

“CBS should lose its license and be given to the highest bidder like 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 be offended by the demonstrable left-wing bias that CBS News has displayed in recent weeks. But broadcasting misleading content is not actually illegal, and revoking a channel’s license because of its policies actually would be.

The First Amendment explicitly protects freedom of the press, which necessarily includes the freedom of press organizations to publish material that angers politicians or that politicians consider to be misleading or inaccurate. It would be authoritarian, un-American and, yes, unconstitutional for a government official to target a news outlet in retaliation because he doesn’t like its reporting.

“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” said Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses from broadcast networks 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 by calling on the government to shut down the network and revoke its license, the former president is crossing a bright red line. Such authoritarian action, if somehow sustained, would set a precedent that would almost certainly come back to haunt conservatives and Republicans.

Because if a Republican president can target liberal-leaning networks and revoke their licenses, the next Democratic president could do the same to, for example, conservative talk radio stations that spread right-wing news and commentary across the country. Democrats could certainly find some right-wing media report calling it a “fake news scam” as a made-up justification.

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Do Republicans really want to go down this dark path?

Trump supporters, including 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 shows such contempt for our most basic freedoms.

Brad Polumbo is co-founder of BASEDPolitics and host of Brad against everyone Podcast.