October 11, 2017

Trump Threatens Networks That Report Critical Stories of Him

He’s still pretty upset over the “moron” story.

Zuma

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday floated the idea of targeting the licenses of TV networks that report “fake news” about him. His tweet came just hours after NBC reported that the president wanted to dramatically increase the United States’ nuclear arsenal—a suggestion that reportedly alarmed Pentagon officials and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. 

The story, which Trump took to Twitter to refute as “pure fiction” on Wednesday, added context to an earlier NBC report alleging Tillerson called Trump a “moron” in response to Trump’s nuclear proposal.

Trump’s threat to use the federal government to shut down critical media follows his recent suggestion of creating “equal time” for conservatives to level the playing the field against late-night TV hosts who mock him. It’s unclear how Trump’s suggestion would work, as only television stations are subject to FCC licensing, not the networks.

Following the initial “moron” report, Tillerson staged an unprecedented news conference last week to express his support for the president. He would neither confirm or deny, however, whether he called Trump a “moron.” In an interview days later, Trump challenged Tillerson to an IQ test.

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At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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