CBS News aired part of President Trump’s prime-time speech on election fraud Thursday night, joining in late and switching away as the commander-in-chief called for ABC and NBC to lose their licenses for not showing his remarks.
Before tuning into Trump’s speech, CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil explained why the network was airing it: “Much of what the President has said on [security of American elections] has been false.”
“There is an argument that it’s irresponsible to air the president’s speech tonight. But this speech will be made. It will be news. And it’s our job to cover the news,” Dokoupil said.
CBS ended its coverage about five minutes before Trump finished speaking, shortly after the president called on the other two broadcast networks to lose their government licenses for not airing his remarks at all.
Dokoupil then began fact-checking Trump’s claims about Chinese interference in the 2020 election.
News networks are not obligated to air the president’s remarks and executives typically make decisions based on the content of the speech.
When Trump gave a primetime address in April on the war with Iran, all the networks carried it live.
Still, the president and his staff were publicly angry at the news outlets that didn’t air Trump’s 25-minute speech on Thursday.
Trump, in his remarks, claimed China worked with some American journalists to discredit him.
He said ABC and NBC knew the topic he would speak on and didn’t “like” it.
“They knew what it was about because of the fact that they don’t like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is, and they don’t want to reveal it,” he said.
“They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left,” he added.
He demanded: “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses.”
ABC and NBC carried the speech on their streaming platforms but did not air it live on their TV networks. The latter also aired a network special after the speech wrapped.
White House communications director Steven Cheung blasted their decision.
“Cowards. NBC and ABC don’t want you to hear the truth. All they want to do is hide the facts from YOU,” he wrote on X ahead of the president’s remarks.
On the cable side, CNN did not air the speech live, but Fox News did. MS Now aired parts of Trump’s remarks.
Cable networks do not have a broadcast license from the Federal Communications Commission, as the broadcast networks have.
The FCC has the legal authority to revoke a broadcast license or deny its renewal but any such move would likely face a lengthy legal challenge from the networks.
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