Trump Goes After NBC and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Says Content ‘Should Be Tested in Courts’
WASHINGTON — President Trump went after “Saturday Night Live” and NBC on Sunday for what he said was the “real scandal of one-sided coverage.”
He even suggested that the nature of their content “should be tested in courts,” in the latest of his threats to take legal action against media outlets.
“A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?” Trump wrote on Twitter.
A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2018
The year’s final “Saturday Night Live” was a spoof on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which Clarence the Angel shows Trump (Alec Baldwin) what the world would look like had he not gotten elected. Among other things, Melania has divorced her husband, and Robert Mueller (Robert De Niro) says he never had to launch an investigation of “some idiot for treason.”
Trump’s attacks on the media, whether news or entertainment, have at times come with legal threat. His attorney sent legal threats to the publishers of books by Michael Wolff and Omarosa Manigault Newman, but did not follow up with legal action.
Trump has previously suggested that the FCC should look at NBC’s broadcast license, once in September and another time in October, 2017. But the agency does not issue broadcast licenses to networks, only individual stations. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai also has said that the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license based on “the content to a particular newscast.”
Trump also has attacked “Saturday Night Live” before. In September, he wrote, “Like many, I don’t watch Saturday Night Live (even though I past hosted it) – no longer funny, no talent or charm. It is just a political ad for the Dems. Word is that Kanye West, who put on a MAGA hat after the show (despite being told “no”), was great. He’s leading the charge!” West appeared on the show’s season premiere.
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