Topic: WorldNetDaily
The bulk of Larry Klayman's Feb. 17 WorldNetDaily column is his letter to the Federal Communications Commission demanding that it "fine, discipline and revoke any and all licenses from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for CNN, or any other legal and appropriate remedial action."
In his letter -- which he claims he is writing on behalf of "the Leftist Media Strike Force project of Freedom Watch" -- Klayman rants that "CNN has become part of an attempted coup d’etat" by airing criticism of President Trump thiat purpotedly will result in Trump's assassination:
Like crying “fire” in a crowded theater and as genuine incitement to imminent violence, CNN’s incitement for some unhinged activist or activists to save the country and the world by killing an elected official portrayed as worse than Hitler had and has the real potential to convince radicalized activists to kill the President-Elect and now President Trump. CNN in particular has spent months demonizing Donald Trump, that is convincing its audience that President Trump is an evil and dangerous man who is a threat to the country. He thus should be assassinated, along with his Vice President and the Republican Speaker of the House, who is second in the line of succession.
Thus, the result of this campaign of incitement for months has produced hysterical, inflamed citizens who are primed and sensitized to play a perceived heroic role by assassinating the President.
Klayman provides no actual examples of CNN's purported incitement. Nor does he square his accusations with his own demonization of President Obama over the past eight years as "an evil and dangerous man who is a threat to the country" which, presumably, carried the same potential incitement of coup and assassination he now ascribes to CNN.
However, as proof of what a terrible lawyer he is, Klayman has overlooked one critical thing: the FCC has effectively no enforcement power over the content of CNN or any other cable channel. FCC regulations regarding cable TV are basically limited to mandating fairness in providing use of cable programming facilities for political candidates and disclosure of paid programming -- none of which apply to CNN.
The FCC has more power to control the content on over-the-air radio and TV, though much less than it used to because conservatives like Klayman fought to overturn the Fairness Doctrine.
Since CNN operates on cable TV only -- which runs on privately owned systems and not on the public airwaves -- it does not require an FCC license to operate and the FCC cannot regulate its programming.
In short: Klayman is demanding that the FCC do something it cannot possibly do, which exposes what he's actually trying to do: get the dgovernment to censor a media outlet for saying something he doesn't like.
You're not going to see Klayman petition the FCC, or whatever federal agency he imagines to supervise such things, to demand that his publisher, WND, be punished for all the potentially assassination-inspiring anti-Obama hate -- worse than Hitler? Check. Evil and dangerous man? Check -- it has published over the years.
