Trump Ratchets Up Threats on the Media

Threatening the news media is nothing new for former President Donald J.Trump.

He has accused major news outlets of defamation, blocked journalists from rallies and White House events, goaded followers into profane chants about CNN and popularized the term “fake news,” now embraced by autocrats around the world.Even by those standards, though, his latest anti-media obsession — stripping television networks of their ability to broadcast the news because of coverage he doesn’t like — stands out.“CBS should lose its license,” Mr.Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.

“60 Minutes should be immediately taken off the air.” He has repeated his demands in speeches and in interviews, echoing his earlier calls for ABC’s license to be “terminated” because of his displeasure with how the network handled his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.On Sunday, Mr.Trump ratcheted up his threats against CBS.

“We’re going to subpoena their records,” he told Fox News in an interview, repeating his claim that the network’s edit of Ms.Harris’s recent appearance on “60 Minutes” was misleading.

Asked if revoking a broadcast license was a “drastic punishment,” Mr.Trump did not answer directly, instead lobbing a string of insults at Ms.

Harris, whom he called “incompetent” and “a Marxist.”During the “60 Minutes” interview, which aired on Oct.7, Ms.

Harris was asked about the war in the Middle East.In an early excerpt released by CBS a day before, Ms.

Harris gave one lengthy answer; in the episode itself, Ms.Harris appeared to give a different, pithier reply.Mr.

Trump — who got into a tiff with CBS ahead of the “60 Minutes” episode, and declined to sit for an interview of his own — quickly seized on the editing as evidence of pro-Harris bias.“60 Minutes” said on Sunday that the “two” answers were merely taken from different sections of Ms.

Harris’s full response to the question, and that Mr.Tru...