US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of challenging media licenses for NBC News and other news networks after unfavourable reports.
He took aim at NBC, which made him a star on The Apprentice, after it reported he wanted to boost America’s nuclear arsenal almost tenfold.
Mr Trump labelled the report “fake news” and pure fiction”.
NBC also angered the White House last week when it reported the secretary of state had called Mr Trump “a moron”.
The US president tweeted on Wednesday: “Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our US nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!”
In a follow-up tweet, he said: “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!”
According to NBC News, Mr Trump told a top-level meeting at the Pentagon in July he wanted to dramatically increase the American stockpile of atomic missiles.
He reportedly made the request after seeing a downward-sloping curve on a briefing slide charting the steady reduction in US nuclear weapons since the 1960s.
Attributing its report to three officials in the room, NBC said Mr Trump’s request surprised those present, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Rex Tillerson.
The network also reported that Mr Trump also called for additional US troops and military equipment.
Trump’s unworkable threat
Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter
Last week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured reporters that Donald Trump was an “incredible advocate” of constitutional free-press protections. This week, the president is contemplating – just wondering! – whether a broadcaster could be forced off the airwaves because he doesn’t approve of its news coverage.
Never mind that the federal government licenses local televisions stations, only some of which are owned by national broadcasters like NBC.
Just because a threat is unworkable in the extreme doesn’t mean the president won’t make it.
Media-bashing is one of Mr Trump’s favourite pastimes – a means of venting frustration, apportioning blame and, perhaps, distracting reporters who always enjoy a bit of journalistic navel-gazing.
As with the NFL anthem-kneeling controversy, the cultural battle lines form quickly when it comes to questions of media bias. The president knows this and uses it to his advantage.
Taking pot-shots at journalists is one thing, of course. Contemplating the use of government coercion to stifle a broadcaster because of its news content is another.
Even if such an outcome is unthinkable in the US at the moment, there are places in the world where press freedoms aren’t as deeply entrenched. Their leaders are watching the president, too.
