On Thursday night, President Donald Trump delivered a primetime address to the nation on one of his favorite topics: the 2020 election.
Over 25 minutes, Trump aired a familiar list of grievances, inveighing against the media, China, and a nebulous collection of conspirators who allegedly stole the 2020 election from him. The allegation has long been debunked, and even the newly declassified evidence Trump touted in the speech didn’t make the case he claimed.
But not every channel aired the speech, and the president threatened them with reprisal as a result. This, too, is a common refrain from the president, and it’s just as meritless as his complaints about the election.
Broadcast networks ABC and NBC announced ahead of time that they would not air Trump’s speech live—instead airing their regularly scheduled programming—though they would air it on their streaming platforms.
CBS did air the speech, with anchor Tony Dokoupil saying that while “much of” Trump’s commentary on the subject “has been false,” the network would still air it. “This speech will be made, it will be news, and it’s our job to cover the news,” he added. CBS also cut away from the speech with about five minutes left.
In the speech, Trump addressed the networks that refused to put him on the air. “In a rare move, NBC and ABC, fake news, have both said that they would not cover this speech,” he griped. “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multi-billion-dollar in value airwaves for absolutely no money. “
Trump is apparently referring to their broadcast licenses, which are issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and allow broadcast over public airwaves.
Going as far back as his first term in office, Trump has threatened to pull networks’ licenses for reporting news that displeases him, and he has ramped up those threats in his second term.
Someone should have explained to him by now that that isn’t how it works. ABC and NBC don’t have broadcast licenses; their affiliates do. The networks create content, but it’s the local affiliates—most of which are owned by someone other than the network—that actually broadcast it and require a license to do so.
But Trump’s suggestion that the networks must carry his speech is also wrong under the law.
Requiring broadcasters to air certain programming, and pulling one’s license at will, is not a feature of American government; in fact, it’s part of authoritarian regimes, like Venezuela.
And Trump is also not the first president to be preempted by a network.
In September 2022, President Joe Biden spoke in Philadelphia, where he warned that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” ABC, NBC, and CBS all declined to air the speech, seeing it as less of a presidential address than a partisan effort leading into that year’s midterms.
And when President Barack Obama announced new immigration actions at the southern border in November 2014, the networks declined to air the address, deeming it more political than newsworthy.
In this day and age, there are vanishingly few people who had no access to see the president speak, if they so choose. The speech aired in its entirety on cable news, on YouTube, on social media, and even on the White House website.
For that matter, the president has no authority to demand that anyone—even licensed broadcasters—air what he wants them to, nor to threaten them with reprisal if they don’t.
“This is hardly the first time major networks have declined to carry a presidential address live,” Greg Lukianoff, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, wrote on X. “Threatening broadcasters’ licenses because of an editorial decision is yet another direct attack on the First Amendment.”
