The strange battle between Donald Trump and broadcast TV

We are just days away from the most important presidential election of our lifetime. I think we can all agree that there is much about this election that is deeply offensive and some aspects, frankly, appalling. But we only have so much time Decoder every week, so today I’m focusing on one thing that stands out to me: Trump and a group of tech billionaires around him have started talking about revoking the broadcast licenses of TV networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS because I don’t like the news broadcasts on those networks.

Trump has been making threats like this since 2017, but in recent days he has been joined by Elon Musk, David Sacks, and others who have taken up the topic and started talking about how we should return the wireless spectrum to TV networks and use it. it in other things.

In the normal world, this would be a millionaire’s wish. Spectrum access is handled by the Federal Communications Commission, there’s a long and tedious process of redeployment, and companies like AT&T and Verizon have legions of lobbyists who spend a lot of time and money getting what they want in the process. Besides, punishing news organizations for their coverage by using government power is one of those things we have the First Amendment to protect against.

You know – the First Amendment, the most famous one? The one who protects freedom of speech by prohibiting the government from making laws about speech or punishing people for what they say? You’d think Elon, a so-called free speech absolutist, would remember that one.

But it turns out, there’s a long and difficult history of government regulating speech in broadcast media like radio and television – and that history includes many of the problems we have regulating technology companies and social media.

I invited you The Verge Senior technology and policy editor Adi Robertson is on the show to help me dig into all this. I always invite Adi to explain too many things, and this is not happening. It sounds to me like a bunch of billionaires are uneducated and ignorant of how anything actually works, so I wanted Adi to help me create a framework for understanding what’s going on.

You will hear us going into more Decoder place in this: we are talking about the Fairness Doctrine, Article 230, independence, and the landmark Supreme Court decision known as The Red Lion. It’s a wild ride.

We covered a lot of issues and a lot of really wonky policy in this episode. Here are some of the stories we discussed, if you’d like to read more:

• The Verge’s guide to the 2024 US presidential election | The Verge
• FCC chairman rejects Trump’s request to revoke CBS license for Harris interview | The Verge
• Florida official who resigned after letter to TV stations blames DeSantis’ office | MSNBC
• “Keeping it simple in the state of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid” | The Verge
• How America turned the First Amendment | The Verge
• Why Sen. Brian Schatz thinks that the safety of children can fulfill the First Amendment | The Verge
• How the Children’s Online Safety Act puts us all at risk | The Verge
• Here’s a bunch of bananas Trump said today about breaking Google | The Verge
• Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the Internet | The Verge