Trump Asks FCC to Protect Free Speech From Mixed Results
President Donald Trump moved Sunday to rescue American free speech from its gravest remaining threat: a journalist describing his political record with an adjective he had not personally approved. Trump said NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker should face “rebuke or punishment” from the Federal Communications Commission after characterizing his midterm endorsement results as mixed. The president rejected that assessment by counting several victories, excluding every defeat and declaring the resulting sample to be the largest landslide in statistical history.
Trump explained that the First Amendment remains fully available to Americans who use it correctly. “The First Amendment is very strong, maybe the strongest amendment, but it was never intended to protect words that make me sound less than completely perfect,” Trump said. “You can say anything you want, as long as Brendan Carr reviews it first and I like it.” The statement established a modern constitutional standard under which government may not restrict speech unless the speech contains criticism, context, arithmetic or an insufficient number of compliments.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was encouraged to investigate whether Welker’s assessment constituted unauthorized mathematics on federally regulated airwaves. Potential violations include acknowledging unsuccessful endorsements, comparing wins with losses and using the word “mixed” without first obtaining presidential certification that reality had been consulted. Regulators may also examine whether NBC retains a valid license to notice things. Under the administration’s emerging broadcast policy, acceptable descriptions of Trump’s record include “perfect,” “historic,” “flawless” and “somehow better than perfect,” while “mixed,” “uneven” and “lost” will be reserved for private conversations conducted beyond the range of microphones.
The White House maintained that the threatened federal punishment was not censorship because censorship is something Democrats do when they object to Republicans threatening federal punishment. Welker remained on television, demonstrating the danger of allowing journalists to compare claims with outcomes before the government has finished improving both. Officials said future election coverage could be stabilized by having the FCC certify every Trump-backed candidate as the winner, including candidates who received fewer votes, conceded or never entered the race. By Sunday evening, free speech had been fully restored by placing it under federal supervision.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.