(Dobbs) Oh Those Pesky Little Rules In The Constitution

There is only one disgrace to our nation, and only one threat, and it isn’t the press.

Sep 1

“She will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.”

That was the threat in Donald Trump’s Sunday post against NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker.

Where is this guy living, in a third grade classroom where he’s “reporting” someone who said something on television he didn’t like? Has the Federal Communications Commission become the principal’s office?

What Welker said about our fickle fragile president— and it wasn’t on Meet the Press, it was on a local station promoting Sunday’s show— was this: “He’s going to loom large over these midterms. There’s no doubt about that. He, of course, has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries. He’s had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Senator Darline Graham, of course, the sister of the late Senator Lindsay Graham, was successful in her primary battle.”

That’s all it took. Even with the powerful reminder of Darline Graham’s victory, he was offended by the phrase “mixed results.” Under his screed, he even posted his version of “proof” that his record of endorsements is almost without challenge.

The way he sees any endorsement he gives is, “It is, without question, the strongest Endorsement in the History of Politics.” It is fair to say that the vast majority of candidates around the country who he endorsed in this year’s primaries won their races, but as this chart from The Washington Post, shows, ten of them, all in races for the statehouse or Congress, didn’t.

That includes his chosen candidate for governor of Minnesota, the 2020 election-denying MyPillow guy Mike Lindell. What is Trump’s endorsement worth when a national blowhard like the pillow guy can’t win a primary?

So was Welker outside the boundaries of honest journalism for calling those “mixed results?” I don’t think so. In the five election years since he first became president, Trump had a worse track record in only one, and that was the next election after his seditious behavior on January 6th, 2021.

But there are three main issues here, and the accuracy of Welker’s statement isn’t one of them.

The first main issue is the president’s crusade for retribution. Trump now has a long history of weaponizing the FCC against broadcasters he doesn’t like. The best example is ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel, who made some jokes last year that offended our sensitive sovereign in the Oval Office. Trump’s pressure forced him temporarily off the air and he tried to get the FCC to force him off permanently.

This summer when Trump made his nothingburger speech about voting, ABC and NBC didn’t interrupt their regular prime time programming to air it. He demanded that the FCC revoke their licenses (which it can’t do because technically the FCC doesn’t “license” broadcast networks. It licenses the local stations who buy their programming). Donald Trump is like a little boy who wants to beat up anyone he doesn’t like and the FCC is his weapon.

The second main issue is the president’s ignorance. After Welker’s statement about “mixed results,” he asked in his post Sunday, “How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves?” The answer, Mr. President, is something grammar school students can understand even if you can’t: the Constitution. No matter how much the FCC’s loyal chairman Brendan Carr wants to support his mentor in matters like these, he can’t. His agency’s own website explains why not:

“The First Amendment, as well as Section 326 of the Communications Act (passed in 1934), prohibits the Commission from censoring broadcast material and from interfering with freedom of _expression_ in broadcasting. The Constitution’s protection of free speech includes programming that may be objectionable to many viewers or listeners. Therefore, the FCC cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view. In this regard, the Commission has observed that ‘the public interest is best served by permitting free _expression_ of views.’”

Oh those pesky little rules.

Donald Trump probably would be happiest if the Constitution just melted away, but he certainly would be happiest if everyone in the mainstream media melted away. He sure doesn’t need us to get his words out, he already has everything it takes: an intellectually servile White House press office that treats his every word and his every act as if mannas from God, and of course his website where he can tell lies until his little fingers cramp up.

He has had it out for journalists since he first rode his escalator into politics. And especially women. In a primary debate for the 2016 election, Fox anchor Megyn Kelly got under his skin with tough questions and he said afterward, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

He asked CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes when she posed a question he didn’t like, “Are you stupid, are you a stupid person?” At a forum of the National Association of Black Journalists, he called ABC’s Rachel Scott “hostile,” “nasty,” and “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.” On Air Force One, when Bloomberg News correspondent Catherine Lucey asked a question about the Epstein files, he stuck his finger toward her face and said, “Quiet, quiet Piggy.”

Earlier this summer after walking out of an interview, Trump called Kristen Welker “crooked” and “stupid.”

Now it’s her turn again.

Which brings us to the third main issue: debasing and degrading the press. It started not a month into Trump’s first term when he borrowed language from the likes of Hitler and Mao and Stalin and wrote on Twitter that the major media was “not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Now, almost a decade later, he has learned nothing, saying in Sunday’s post, “The Press is a Disgrace to our Nation, and I hope that (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously.”

There is only one disgrace to our nation, and only one threat, and it isn’t the press. It is the president. The president of the United States.

It’s not that the people who work in the news business are worthier than anybody else. I’ve worked alongside some liars, some incompetents, some misfits, some self-promoters, and some falling-down drunks. But the institution for which they work, the news media, is one of the worthiest. It isn’t perfect and these days it is more imperfect than used to be. But after sixty years as a journalist, I know that most do their damndest to get things right. And the things they have to get right include holding corrupt or dishonest politicians to account.

That includes a journalist like Kristen Welker.

I’ve covered countries where free speech and a free press were only a dream. They are more than that here. Kristen believes that’s worth fighting for. So do I.

[Salon] Oh Those Pesky Little Rules In The Constitution

(Dobbs) Oh Those Pesky Little Rules In The Constitution

There is only one disgrace to our nation, and only one threat, and it isn’t the press.