Trump Threatens to Report NBC Reporter to US Media Regulator
Theo Al Jazeera English
US President Donald Trump has threatened to refer NBC journalist Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over her reporting on primary results, which he claims was inaccurate. This is part of his ongoing pressure on media outlets, including lawsuits and regulatory moves, amid concerns over press freedom.
US President Donald Trump said on August 23 that he will refer veteran NBC journalist Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the regulator overseeing public broadcast television stations, requesting a "reprimand or penalty."
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump criticized Welker for describing the results of primaries he endorsed as "mixed" as the November election nears. He wrote: "How can anyone be allowed to say this while working on free public airwaves?" He also shared a chart, without citing data sources, claiming that 98% of his endorsed candidates won.
Welker moderated the 2020 live debate between Trump and then-President Joe Biden and currently hosts NBC's prominent program Meet the Press. In June, during a one-on-one interview, Trump ended the conversation abruptly when she questioned him about 2020 election fraud allegations. Trump previously said: "Your election is rigged, you're rigged, Meet the Press is rigged, and so are ABC, CBS, and CNN. You are dishonest one-sided media outlets."
Trump, who has had a turbulent relationship with US television news outlets, has increasingly threatened to use the FCC to address what he calls fake news. Earlier this month, ABC News sued the FCC, accusing the agency of prematurely reviewing the licenses of eight Disney-owned television stations, calling it a "retaliatory" move to create "a media industry too intimidated by official retaliation to report freely." The dispute followed calls by Trump and his wife to fire host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about Melania Trump.
Additionally, Trump has filed multibillion-dollar civil lawsuits against several news organizations for defamation. Last year, he sued the BBC for $10 billion, alleging unfair editing of a video about his speech before the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. He also sued The New York Times for $15 billion and The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over articles about his finances and ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Courts dismissed the WSJ case, and he refiled the NYT lawsuit after an initial dismissal.
Trump's latest warning comes as his administration uses courts to pressure journalists to reveal confidential sources. This month, The New York Times revealed that FBI agents visited a reporter's home to serve a subpoena related to an investigation about a secret SEAL mission in North Korea. In July, the US Department of Justice sought subpoenas for three other Times reporters regarding an Air Force One story but withdrew after a judge criticized the move as violating the First Amendment. Journalists from WSJ and The Washington Post have also faced subpoenas in national security cases.
Press freedom groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have criticized the Trump administration for targeting critical media outlets. In April, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the US fell to a "historic low" in its global press freedom index, dropping from 57th to 64th place.
