History Rhymes At The FCC

Somebody, likely not Mark Twain, once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” I was reminded of that observation when I read the latest news in President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News, a division of the broadcast network owned by Paramount Global.

As you will recall, in the waning days of the 2024 presidential election, then-Republican Party candidate Trump sued CBS News in Texas claiming it violated the state’s consumer protection law by misleading voters. The complaint alleged that the media company had “deceptively” edited a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, the then-Democratic Party presidential candidate, in a way that gave her an advantage in the election.

The suit originally asked for $10 billion dollars in damages. It was amended, in February 2025, to seek $20 billion. When updating the case, Trump’s lawyers added claims for “unfair competition under the federal Lanham Act.” And in what appears to be a response to CBS’ request to move the case to New York because neither of the parties resided in Texas, the Trump team added Texas Republican congressman Ronny Jackson as co-plaintiff. The amended suit says Jackson was also “misled” by the 60 Minutes interview.

Trump has since threatened CBS and 60 Minutes for other reporting with which he disagreed. On April 13, he took to his social media platform to complain about an episode which included an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not long after their awkward White House meeting, and a piece about Greenland. The Greenland segment featured residents who were not in favor of the Trump administration’s stated goal of taking control of the territory.

In addition to suggesting CBS “should lose their license!,” the president wrote: “Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this…”

During the first Trump administration, Washington Post analyst Aaron Blake wrote a piece titled, “Trump’s Threat to NBC’s license is the Very Definition of Nixonian.” Blake’s essay was in response to an Oct. 11, 2017 tweet by the former and now current president, which read, “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”

In his article, Blake pointed out that NBC and other national television networks do not have a single broadcast license. Further, he said that neither the president nor those allied with him would be able to challenge all of NBC’s licenses with a single action. In Blake’s words, “Individuals who reside in the areas the local channel airs would have to submit complaints to the FCC.”

This did happen under Nixon. As Blake explains, The Washington Post was investigating Nixon for its Watergate series, which Nixon disliked. Then, George Champion Jr., who had been finance chairman for Nixon’s campaign in Florida, filed a challenge against the license for a Jacksonville, Fla., station jointly owned by The Washington Post and Newsweek. At almost the same time, two other men closely associated with Nixon filed a complaint against the license for a Post co-owned station in Miami. These second complainants were the law partner of a friend of Richard Nixon, Cromwell Anderson, and Edward Claughan, who had lent his Florida home to then-Vice President Spiro Agnew during the August 1975 Republican National Convention.

As one might expect, Nixon’s press secretary, Ronald Ziegler, denied any connection between the license complaints and the Nixon administration.

Blake’s column goes on to quote from the Nixon White House tapes which he says “painted a picture of a president who wanted to employ exactly those tactics.” In the transcribed section, Richard Nixon and White House Counsel John Dean are discussing how challenges to the Post’s television and radio station licenses could be used to cause problems for the company.

The Washington Post and its chair, Katharine Graham, both suffered as a result of Nixon’s actions. Graham was investigated by the IRS (a retaliation that was later outlawed) and the Post ended up swapping D.C.-area radio and television stations to resolve cross-ownership disputes despite the stations in question being covered by an FCC rule grandfathering existing cross-ownership situations.

Interestingly, the conversation quoted in the Blake piece was not included in the transcript used for the Watergate investigation. The assumption is that it wasn’t considered important. At the time of the investigation, says Blake, someone associated with the House Judiciary Committee commented to AP, “Really, they’re just open threats.”

Recently, much has been made of the possible connection between Trump’s calls to challenge CBS’ licenses, his lawsuit against the news division and the FCC’s delay in granting approval for Paramount’s (CBS’ parent) merger with Skydance Media. Carr has explained the delay as being related to the investigation of potentially illegal DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs at the company. This could be part of it; there is evidence that it wasn’t until after “Verizon pledged to eradicate DEI initiatives” that the FCC approved Verizon’s acquisition of Frontier Communications.

However, it is noteworthy that in a November 2024 interview with Fox News, Carr commented that “a conservative group’s ‘news distortion’ complaint against CBS over the 60 Minutes Harris interview was ‘likely to arise in the context of the FCC review of [the Paramount-Skydance] transaction.’”

It was less than a week after Trump’s April 13 social media post encouraging FCC punishment of CBS for the 60 Minutes segments about Ukraine and Greenland that the program’s executive producer, Bill Owens, announced his resignation. Owens said it had “become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it.”

Then, one month later on May 19,  CBS News President Wendy McMahon left the network saying, “the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”

Given these developments, it is not surprising that lawyers for Trump and co-plaintiff Jackson, along with attorneys for CBS/Paramount, just requested a deadline extension because they “are engaged in active settlement discussions, including continued mediation.”

With the parent company’s exertion of greater control over 60 Minutes and Shari Redstone, who is both non-executive chair of Paramount Global as well as chair, president and CEO of National Amusements, having signaled that she is willing to pay a settlement to resolve the lawsuit, a deal could happen quickly.

While the FCC has been unable to do anything outside of routine business because it lacks a quorum, that also appears to be changing. On June 12, Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed paperwork to allow a speedy Senate debate and vote on the appointment of Olivia Trusty to fill the term of former FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, which happened on June 17. With three of the FCC’s five commissioner seats filled, the commission will have the quorum it needs as well as a Republican majority. It’s interesting to note that Rosenworcel’s term expires on June 30; there seems to be some urgency.

If the Paramount and Skydance Media merger is approved soon, what does that say about the prospects for other license transfers such as those that would accompany the recently announced potential sale of Allen Media Group’s 28 broadcast television stations? To my mind, it would seem to validate a couple of considerations. The first is what former FCC chief of staff Blair Levin calls a “Trump transaction tax.” TheWrap’s Lucas Manfredi says this means “requiring the elimination of DEI initiatives or revising news coverage to get deals done,” both of which appear to be the case with CBS News.

The second is around who will be approved to acquire station licenses. In a June 6 opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal by Holman W. Jenkins called “Men and Women Behaving Badly in Trump-CBS Case,” Jenkins’ contention is that most of the players involved have missed an opportunity. In the case of Skydance, Jenkins says Larry Ellison and his son David could have emphasized their intention to close the deal regardless of the Trump claim. Yet, as Jenkins points out, “Mr. Ellison senior, the moneybags behind his son’s movie ambitions, is a conspicuous Trump supporter.”

What if that’s the point? The president is likely to view Trump supporters as friendly holders of broadcast television licenses. In return, the Ellisons staying mum helps Trump profit from what Jenkins characterizes as “a meritless Trump lawsuit.”

The difference between the current administration and that of the late 1970s seems to be that in addition to punishing perceived enemies, the current group favors overtly profiting from transactions and rewarding supporters. Now more than ever, the answer to the question about what a television station is worth is: “It depends.”