"I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it's so wrong," President Donald Trump told Mary Bruce, the network's chief White House correspondent, on Tuesday. That comment is just the latest example of Trump's threats to punish journalists who annoy him by revoking broadcast licenses, a pattern that began during his first term.
As Trump sees it, broadcasters have a legal obligation to treat him fairly. And if they fail to do so, he thinks, they should lose the licenses that allow them to transmit programming over "free airwaves from the United States government." That position reflects Trump's general antipathy toward freedom of the press, which he seems to view as a privilege subject to government approval rather than a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
