'Playing the hits' is the term radio staffers use to roll on the same top songs hour after hour, and when it comes to presidential speeches what many heard Thursday night was Donald Trump doing the same.
But as major networks chose not to break into prime time programming to carry his Oval Office address, Trump introduced something new: Threats against those who chose not to carry it live.
ABC and NBC, specifically, did not air his live remarks, and he called them out during the speech where he, among other things, made more claims about the 2020 election being stolen from him.
He claimed the networks declined to carry his speech live in their top hours “because they know how corrupt our system is and they don’t want to reveal it.”
“They and others in the media are part of a plot,” the president said, offering no evidence for his claims.
And then he said their government-issued broadcast licenses should be revoked, a threat he has made many times, especially toward ABC. Federal regulators are currently reviewing the station licenses owned by ABC, which the network claims is an “unconstitutional retaliation” for its programming, including late night host Jimmy Kimmel who regularly mocks the administration.
Overall, the announcement that the speech was coming created a disturbance in many newsrooms, pundits said, because of the president's checkered history with the truth and word that he planned to use the time to repeat his many-times debunked stolen election claims.
"Trump’s fixation on false claims about the 2020 election made Thursday night’s address a fraught event for every organization in the business of live news coverage," CNN reported.
Only two major US broadcast networks carried it live, including right-wing stalwart Fox News, and CBS, which has been currying the president's favor as its owner tries to win approval for a major deal. CBS carrying it came amid news its parent company has given thousands in gifts to the FCC chairman that he accepted. More on that here.
CBS did take the step of fact-checking and providing context before and immediately after the president's talk, which CNN called "a truth sandwich.”
Still, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner criticized CBS while appearing on the network to rebut Trump’s address. He told anchor Tony Dokoupil, “It’s incumbent on you and any responsible journalist to push back on these falsehoods.”
Dokoupil argued he'd been doing exactly that.
For its part, Fox News, a GOP ally, was forced to pay $787 million to settle a defamation suit stemming from hosts repeating and pushing false claims about election interference to pacify Trump in 2020. This time, they dipped in and out of the speech and afterward Bret Baier, the channel’s chief political anchor, added that Fox News “has not seen that evidence (of vote fraud) directly yet, and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statements at this time.”
It's worth noting, as the NY Times did, that "Presidents must request airtime from television channels when they wish to speak in prime time, and in the past, network executives have been loath to accommodate speeches that they view as distinctly political in nature, especially during election years. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. both had some requests denied."
