Posts
Trump
denies calling for a larger nuclear arsenal
Of
course this is satire and brought to you by the exact same media that
brought you RussiaGate.
Some
people are so deprived of a sense of humour that they have to have it
pointed out and still others equate satire with “fake news”.
Serious
comments have been made to this bit of fun such as “Trump wouldn’t
have said this because he doesn’t acknowledge climate change”
(sic)
The
real story,if we are to believe it, is below.
After
repealing Obama-era climate plan, president says, “I will cool off
the planet AND ice out the Rocket Man at the same time!”
On
the day the Trump administration repealed a major Obama-era
regulation that curbed carbon emissions, President Trump announced
his own plan to stop global warming by offsetting it with a prolonged
nuclear winter.
“I
can’t believe NO ONE ever thought of this before,” tweeted the
president. “Many problems solved with just one push of a
button — YOU’RE WELCOME, WORLD!”
Trump Blasts 'Disgusting' Media as He Threatens NBC Licenses
(Bloomberg)
-- President Donald Trump denied ever calling for a bigger U.S.
nuclear arsenal and questioned whether FCC licenses should be taken
from NBC television stations after the network published a story on
Wednesday saying he had done so in a meeting with military and
security officials.
“It’s
frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they
want to write and people should want to look into it,” Trump told
reporters as he met at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau.
President
Trump says he "never discussed" increasing nuclear arsenal.
Trump’s
denial was backed up by a statement by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
“Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the
U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false,” Mattis said. “This
kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible.”
NBC
said that Trump made his remarks about the arsenal at a meeting with
his national security advisers on July 20, and that Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson called him a “moron” after he left that
session.
Trump
first issued a denial on Twitter early Wednesday and then raised the
prospect of challenging FCC licenses. NBCUniversal, the parent
company of the network, is owned by Comcast Corp.
“With
all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what
point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”
he wrote in a tweet.
The
president doubled-down on the threat Wednesday night, saying on
Twitter that “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and
fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked.
Not fair to public!”
Comcast
shares slid slightly lower after Trump’s tweet, down 0.7 percent to
$37.41 at 10:28 a.m. in New York.
Trump
has occasionally threatened to use the powers of his office against
news organizations that cross him. During his campaign, and again in
March, he mused about loosening libel law to make it easier to win
lawsuits over inaccurate stories. In an Oct. 5 tweet he urged the
Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate mainstream media
organizations’ news coverage as part of its probe into Russian
interference in the 2016 election.
In
1972, President Richard Nixon urged his lieutenants to interfere with
the renewal of the Washington Post’s licenses for Florida TV
stations. The company’s stock price took a hit, and defending the
licenses cost the company more than $1 million in legal fees over 2
1/2 years, publisher Katharine Graham wrote in 1997.
“Of
all the threats to the company during Watergate — the attempts to
undermine our credibility, the petty slights, and the favoring of the
competition — the most effective were the challenges to the
licenses of our two Florida television stations,” Graham wrote in
her memoir.
Trump’s
tweet was reminiscent of the episode.
“Is
that Mr. Nixon speaking? That’s the last time we had that,” said
Peter Tannenwald, a communications attorney.
Tannenwald,
who has practiced law for 50 years, couldn’t recall an instance of
a TV license being revoked because of the station’s programming.
Democratic
Criticism
Democrats
blasted the president’s action as a clear attempt to intimidate
journalists.
Senator
Ed Markey of Massachusetts urged the Federal Communications
Commission in a letter to “withstand any urges from President Trump
to harm the news media and infringe upon the First Amendment.”
“@POTUS
is again openly suggesting an abuse of power,” Senator Tom Udall, a
New Mexico Democrat, said in a tweet.
Jessica
Rosenworcel, a Democratic member of the FCC, tweeted simply, “Not
how it works.”
The
FCC’s Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, who was chosen by Trump,
didn’t respond to requests by email and telephone for comment.
The
National Association of Broadcasters said Trump’s threat to use
regulatory authority against the television network violates the
Constitution’s First Amendment protection for press freedom.
“It
is contrary to this fundamental right for any government official to
threaten the revocation of an FCC license simply because of a
disagreement with the reporting of a journalist,” Gordon Smith,
president of the Washington-based trade group, said in an emailed
comment. Smith is a former Republican U.S. senator from Oregon.
Comcast
Licenses
The
FCC issues licenses to owners of television stations, which must be
periodically renewed. Comcast owns 10 NBC stations, including in New
York and Los Angeles, and it said in a filing this year that
“substantially all of our broadcast television station licenses
have pending applications for renewal.”
The
television network also broadcasts through more than 200 stations
owned by independent businesses. Affiliate owners include Gray
Television Inc., which listed 29 NBC stations in a March filing, and
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which listed 22 stations in an annual
filing in February.
The
White House didn’t immediately comment. An NBCUniversal spokeswoman
declined to comment.
Trump
and NBC have a uniquely complicated relationship.
NBC
made Trump a star by airing “The Apprentice.” And Trump hosted
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” during the presidential campaign.
However,
Trump has threatened to break up Comcast. Alec Baldwin routinely
skewers Trump on “Saturday Night Live.” And NBC said it cut ties
with Trump in 2015 after he derided Mexican immigrants as “rapists”
during a speech announcing his presidential campaign, saying it would
no longer air the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants -- a
joint venture between Trump and NBC.
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