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** OPINION
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** Trump cowed Paramount. Now he’s targeting ABC and NBC.
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President Donald Trump talks with reporters at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Donald Trump looks like he’s just getting warmed up.

Now that he has gotten Paramount to settle its lawsuit with him, Trump is taking aim at the other two major networks: NBC and ABC.

On Saturday, Trump took to his Truth Social to go after the other networks. In one post ([link removed]) , Trump wrote, “Wow, ‘Concast's’ NBC is down in viewership almost 28% this year. Their programming is terrible, their management even worse. They are an arm of the Democrat Party, and should be held accountable for that. Likewise, Fake News ABC!!! MAGA”

I’m assuming he purposely changed Comcast, the name of NBC’s owners, to Concast — as in “con.” Trump wasn’t done.

In another post ([link removed]) , Trump wrote, “Networks aren’t allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party. It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked! MAGA.”

Trump clearly seems buoyed by Paramount backing down and settling its recent lawsuit, filed by Trump, by agreeing to pay the president $16 million. He sees it as a victory, and wasted no time after the settlement looking to see who else he could attack.

Right after Paramount’s settlement, Trump posted on Truth Social ([link removed]) , “BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount. Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle. Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars. This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media, who we are holding to account for their widespread fraud and deceit. The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

He then ramped up those threats by specifically mentioning NBC and ABC over the weekend.

There might have been a time when this all was viewed as Trump simply trolling the media. But now that Paramount has backed down, now that he has defunded NPR and PBS, now that he has effectively dismantled the Voice of America, it can no longer be viewed as idle threats or trolling.

Mediaite’s Colby Hall was spot-on when he wrote ([link removed]) , “Under normal circumstances, a president’s demand that media networks face broadcast license revocation for being politically oppositional would be treated as a frontal assault on the First Amendment. It would raise alarms inside every newsroom and boardroom in America. But we’re no longer in normal circumstances. Because what Trump is doing — again — is less about igniting a fire than desensitizing us to smoke. And the landscape around him is shifting in ways that make his threats feel less implausible than ever before.”

As Hall points out, the Federal Communications Commission can’t just revoke a license because of content. “But,” Hall writes, “authority, like norms, can be bent. (FCC chairman) Brendan Carr is clearly eager to do the bending.”

In the end, the threats made by Trump might be the point. He already scared Paramount into settling its lawsuit because it needed the Trump administration’s approval to be sold to Skydance. Along the way, Trump’s muscle has Skydance promising to hire an ombudsman for CBS News and not to install any DEI programs.

He might figure that if he can scare Paramount and Skydance and CBS with a lawsuit that he had virtually no chance to win in court, then he can scare ABC and NBC, too.

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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Register for the events ([link removed])


** Media star of the day
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MSNBC’s Ali Velshi went on quite a roll Sunday ([link removed]) during his show, commenting on Donald Trump’s meeting with reporters in Scotland. Trump was sitting alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, just ahead of the announcement that the U.S. reached a preliminary trade agreement with Europe.

Velshi called Trump’s meeting with the press “bat poop crazy.”

Velshi held up a piece of paper with all kinds of scribblings and said, “I took lots of notes. This is in no particular order. Windmills are killing us. Seven million people died in Rwanda, ‘but I ended that.’ The Rwanda genocide ended in 1994. 'Energy needs no subsidy.' America subsidizes energy to a great degree.”

Velshi later added, “He went on for a little while about a ballroom and how they don't have a ballroom in the White House because they've never had a developer in charge of the White House. But now he just built a beautiful ballroom and he could just drop it into the White House and that's going to be fantastic. Wow."

Meanwhile, one of Velshi’s guests, former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, criticized the reporters in the room, saying, “It’s unfortunate that in those kind of scrums he’s not challenged in the room.” She added that it was “extremely unfortunate” that no one challenged Trump on the Jeffrey Epstein “cover-up.” (Trump was asked one question about Epstein, asking if the deal with the EU was rushed to distract people from the Epstein story, which he answered by saying, “Oh, you gotta be kidding with that. No, had nothing to do with it. Only you would think that. That had nothing to do with it.”)

Rubin continued on Velshi’s show, “So what those reporters are doing in that room, I do not know. It was a very bad showing from the (press).”

Not only did they criticize the press for what wasn’t asked, but for what was asked. For example, after Trump said he was in a bad mood, a reporter asked if it was because he had a bad round of golf.

Velshi would go on to say, “I’m sorry for journalism. I apologize for journalism, for some of the questions that were going on.”


** Meet the controversy
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The Epstein story was a major topic on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky criticized Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for sending the House home early for its summer recess to avoid holding a vote on whether or not to release the Epstein files. Johnson had said Massie was inflicting political pain on the Republican Party by siding with Democrats and trying to force a vote.

Massie told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, “I don’t know why it should be politically painful to be transparent.”

Massie added, “Is the pain he’s talking about that they’ll, somebody in our party, will be embarrassed by those files? Then that’s not a good excuse. Is the pain he’s talking about is that the legislators, when they vote, have to pick between protecting embarrassment of the rich and powerful versus getting justice for victims? I don’t really understand what he means by that.”

Massie also said, “Why is it painful for Mike Johnson to call a vote on this? The American people deserve this, regardless of what the political ramifications are for the speaker.”

It just so happened that Johnson was also on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” He appeared after Massie. He told Welker that he was thinking about the victims as a reason not to release the files. He said, “It is not the right approach. We have to protect the innocent. We’ll do it at all cost.”

Meanwhile, there has been talk that Epstein’s partner, the imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell, should be given a deal to talk about what she knows. Maxell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. She was interviewed by the Department of Justice last week.

Johnson told Welker, “I think she should have a life sentence at least.”

As far as granting her a pardon, Johnson said he would “have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would.”


** Seriously, Fox News?
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MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, co-founder of the conservative Turning Point USA, was a guest host this past weekend on “Fox & Friends.” As USA Today’s Jay Stahl noted ([link removed]) , “The former wunderkind firebrand is best known for making statements considered by some to be intentionally provocative. He said last year that he might assume a Black airline pilot is less qualified than a white pilot because of DEI initiatives. In 2023, he also said on his podcast ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ that only straight married couples should be allowed to adopt children.”

Media Matters writes that “he has a history of pushing right-wing hoaxes and conspiracy theories.”

But, apparently searching for young audiences, Fox News gave him a comfy spot on a couch over the weekend.


** Both sides
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Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, shown here in 2023. (Greg Allen/Invision/AP)

Former late-night talk-show host Jay Leno is OK with political humor. As long as you poke both sides.

The topic of late-night humor ramped up in the past week when CBS announced that it was canceling Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show.” The network said the decision was a financial one, but the announcement came only days after Colbert slammed the network, on air, for CBS’s parent company, Paramount, settling its lawsuit with Trump.

It appears that Leno’s comments about late-night comedy actually came before the Colbert announcement. Leno was doing an interview with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation ([link removed]) .

Leno said that when he hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show,” which he did from 1992 to 2009, he got hate mail from both Democrats and Republicans, which he seemed to take pride in because that meant he wasn’t taking sides.

But in the interview, he talked about the danger of mixing politics with comedy, saying, “I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, the pressures of life, wherever it might be. And I love political humor, don’t get me wrong, but what happens (is) people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.”

Leno would go on to say, “I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture. … Why shoot for just half an audience? Why not try to get the whole? I like to bring people into the big picture. I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group — or just don’t do it at all. I’m not saying you have to throw your support (on one side). But just do what’s funny.”

Let’s be honest: Leno was never edgy or controversial, which is probably why he was able to last so long on late night. On one hand, you could say his opinion on late night and political humor is smart business and exactly what the networks want — you take gentle jabs at everybody and that way you don’t offend anybody. And that’s what Leno delivered all those years. NBC execs never had to wake up in the morning worried about what Leno said in his monologue the night before.

Or, you could look at his comments as coming from a sellout who, while saying he puts the audience first, ultimately cares more about his paycheck and keeping his bosses happy than standing up for what he believes.

Perhaps Leno also should be reminded that the stakes are much higher these days. With Trump in the White House, the political climate is much more serious than when he was a late-night host.

Meanwhile, British TV host and former CNN host Piers Morgan blamed Colbert for getting himself canceled. Variety’s Jack Dunn has more in “Piers Morgan: ‘No Wonder’ Stephen Colbert Got Canceled When Most Late Night Hosts Are ‘Activist Hacks for the Democrats.’” ([link removed])


** Media tidbits
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* New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd with “CBS: Caving. Bowing. Scraping.” ([link removed])
* Here’s a media person who seems OK with NPR and PBS losing their federal money. It’s The Wall Street Journal’s Andy Kessler with “We Won’t Miss Government Media.” ([link removed])
* Axios’ Sara Fischer with “Trump-Epstein saga splinters the Murdoch empire.” ([link removed])
* The Associated Press’ Gillian Flaccus with “Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97.” ([link removed])
* And here’s The New York Times’ Richard Severo and Peter Keepnews with their piece ([link removed]) on Lehrer.
* This is an interesting video ([link removed]) as Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus describes how he takes photos during the Tour de France.


** Hot type
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* From a partnership between CBS News and The Marshall Project, it’s Erin Moriarty, Sari Aviv, Shoshana Walter and Jennifer Earl with a report on new mothers who say they had to undergo devastating investigations after hospitals reported their false positive drug tests to child welfare agencies shortly after they gave birth: “A mom says an ‘everything bagel’ caused her to fail a drug test. The hospital reported her to child protective services anyway.” ([link removed])
* The New York Times’ Eli Saslow with “ICE Took Half Their Work Force. What Do They Do Now?” ([link removed])


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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

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