Pai: FCC Cannot Revoke Licenses Based On Content

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the authority to revoke a broadcast network’s license based on content, Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday in response to President Trump’s call on it to challenge NBC’s FCC licenses.

“I believe in the first amendment. The FCC under my leadership, will stand for the first amendment,” Pai said in response to a question about calls from Trump to revoke the licenses of broadcasters who, according to the president, broadcast “fake news.”

“Under the law, the FCC does not have the authority does not have the power to revoke license of a broadcast station based on content of a program,” Pai, who was appointed by Trump as FCC chairman, said at an AT&T policy event.

Brian Schatz

The Hill reports the FCC Chairman also stressed that it is “not within the FCC’s jurisdiction to handle fake news.”

Trump tweeted last week that NBC’s broadcasting license should be challenged and potentially revoked after it published a story that said he had called for the nation’s nuclear stockpile to be increased by a factor of 10.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) blasted the chairman's response.

“[Ajit Pai’s] statement is better than nothing, but it is merely a reiteration of the FCC’s authorities under the law,” Schatz said in a statement on Tuesday.

“What we needed is a full-throated defense of the independence of the FCC against political interference. When the president announced his intent to retaliate against a broadcaster based on content, the FCC should have rejected it,” the Hawaii senator said.