JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Former President Donald Trump loves attention from the press, but he also expresses a lot of contempt toward the press, as he did during a recent interview with Bloomberg News.
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DONALD TRUMP: What is The Wall Street Journal? They've been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way.
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SUMMERS: On the campaign trail, Trump has suggested that if he regains the White House, he will exact vengeance on news outlets that anger him, a stark violation of First Amendment principles. NPR's David Folkenflik reports that the comments come at a time of heightened concern about Trump's more autocratic impulses.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: It's not subtle. It's not isolated. It's not off-the-cuff. Last year Trump called for NBC to lose its license over its coverage of criminal charges he's facing. In August, after the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, it was ABC's turn.
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TRUMP: I think ABC took a big hit last night.
FOLKENFLIK: The network's moderators had fact-checked Trump several times. He popped up on "Fox & Friends" with a warning for ABC.
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TRUMP: I mean, to be honest, they're a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.
FOLKENFLIK: That's actually not quite how it works, but this month, he's been back at it, slamming CBS over the vice presidential debate and the network's interview of Harris. Here Trump was in Colorado.
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TRUMP: Think of this. So CBS gets a license, and the license is based on honesty. I think they have to take their license away.
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TRUMP: I do.
FOLKENFLIK: Press advocates say Trump has fueled a climate hostile to independent reporting. A new survey of hundreds of journalists by the International Women's Media Foundation finds about a third say they have faced or been threatened with physical violence on the job, especially at Trump campaign rallies. A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee says, quote, "President Trump was a champion for free speech. Everyone was safer under President Trump, including journalists." Even so, Trump has repeatedly pledged to jail reporters if they don't identify confidential sources.
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TRUMP: And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly...
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TRUMP: He will say, I'd very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker - it was...
FOLKENFLIK: This at a Texas rally two years ago, and Trump said, not just the reporters.
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TRUMP: And the publisher too, or the top editors.
FOLKENFLIK: At The New York Times, leaders are girding for what might ensue if Trump wins. Here's executive editor Joseph Kahn.
JOSEPH KAHN: The publisher devoted a team of people in a significant effort to looking at the ways in which the rule of law, protections for the press, could be worn away by either authoritarian leaders or by populous leaders who rally their supporters against independent media.
FOLKENFLIK: Kahn spoke recently with NPR's Steve Inskeep.
KAHN: And we shouldn't pretend that they're only vulnerable in a place like Hungary or Turkey. They are also vulnerable here.
FOLKENFLIK: As President Trump aided allies such as Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch and he tried to punish critical outlets, his administration sought to block the takeover of CNN's parent company and tried to deny a cloud computing contract for Amazon, founded by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. So let's return to the question of those broadcast licenses Trump says he wants to take away. Jessica Rosenworcel is the chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission.
JESSICA ROSENWORCEL: Well, it speaks directly to the First Amendment, and the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy.
FOLKENFLIK: To be clear, the networks aren't licensed at all. Local TV and radio stations are, by the FCC, to use the public airwaves. The three big broadcast networks' parent companies own about 80 stations among them. Each station is a profit center, and therefore a pressure point for those networks. Rosenworcel tells me any such pressure endangers the media's free speech rights.
ROSENWORCEL: While the FCC has authority to provide licenses for television and radio, it is pretty fundamental that we do not take them away because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes any kind of content or coverage.
FOLKENFLIK: The FCC was set up 90 years ago as a semi-autonomous agency. While Rosenworcel was appointed chairwoman by President Biden, she is not subject to his directive. Last year, Trump posted a video promising to bring the agency under full White House control.
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TRUMP: I will bring the independent regulatory agencies, such as the FCC and the FTC, back under presidential authority as the constitution demands.
FOLKENFLIK: That claim about constitutional authority is highly contentious.
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TRUMP: These agencies do not get to become a fourth branch of government, issuing rules and edicts all by themselves, and that's what they've been doing.
ROSENWORCEL: It's the frequency of these attacks on the First Amendment that strikes me most.
FOLKENFLIK: Once again, FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
ROSENWORCEL: We can't let this be normal. If you want to maintain a constitutional democracy, you have to speak up for it.
FOLKENFLIK: Her term is up in June. Her successor will be appointed by the next president. David Folkenflik, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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