Media Must Cover Trump's Welker Attack as Authoritarianism

Trump took to Truth Social Sunday to demand that Kristen Welker of NBC's Meet the Press be "reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment." Her offense: accurately reporting that his primary endorsement record has produced mixed results. In a separate post, he complained about "fake polls" and wrote "FCC to the rescue!" — treating a federal regulatory agency as his personal media enforcer.

This is not a media spat. The FCC's own rules state it cannot punish a broadcaster for a point of view. But FCC Chair Brendan Carr — a Trump appointee — has already threatened broadcasters over Iran war coverage, launched an aggressive review of ABC's licenses, and prompted Disney to file a First Amendment lawsuit against the commission. Meanwhile, Treasury barred journalists from the Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg from covering the G20 this week.

The pattern is unmistakable: a president who storms off interviews, threatens regulators, and demands punishment for accurate reporting is not engaging in media criticism. He is waging a systematic campaign to make journalism too costly to practice.

We call on the media to stop covering Trump's attacks on journalists as outbursts and start covering them as what they are: deliberate, escalating attempts to use government power to silence the press. The public deserves reporting that names authoritarianism when it sees it — not after the fact, but right now.