Back on Wednesday unpopular fascist Donald Trump tweeted this insane thing:
Many people very quickly pointed out that in ranking Trump’s idiotic tweets over the years, this one makes it into the pantheon of possibly impeachable things our current president has said. In this case the head of our executive branch is attacking the free speech of a network by tangentially telling one of the departments of our government to consider revoking that outlet’s ability to project their message/voice. It’s clearly a very problematic thing to say the least. The current Verizon shill helming our FCC is Ajit Pai. He has been conspicuously silent about the whole affair.
Both Democratic members of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn, said they would not help Trump attack NBC by targeting its licenses. "Revoking a broadcast license on such grounds will only happen if we fail to abide by the First Amendment," Clyburn said.
Republican members of the commission have not issued any statements on the topic yesterday or today.
On Friday, after days of silence from Pai, former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler published an essay on the Brookings Institute’s website pulling no punches on how spineless our current FCC majority is.
There is nothing nuanced here. The suggestion that the government, through its broadcast regulator, should act to suppress free speech and freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment shows a lack of respect for basic constitutional principles. The press can be uncomfortable (believe me, I know), but the First Amendment requirements that government officials respect press freedom whether they like the coverage or not. That’s not news, that’s the Constitution.
The president may decide he can walk away from his oath of office, but the FCC commissioners have also sworn to uphold the Constitution. Despite this, they are AWOL. Why the silence from the Republicans at the FCC? The two Democratic commissioners, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, immediately spoke up on this constitutional affront.
But where are the Republicans? Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr were both appointed by Donald Trump, and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is a former Republican congressional staffer who prides himself on strict adherence to the law. Normally, they will tweet at the drop of a hat. Have they lost their Twitter handles?
Wheeler goes on into the specifics of what Donald Trump’s tweet actually would mean if it were to be acted upon by the FCC. He goes on to explain that the silence coming from the Republican majority in the FCC is even more glaring as the most basic of statements would have sufficed in this case. This is a real First Amendment issue—not one of these bogus climate denier ones the Republican Party so frequently hides behind.