TV stations don’t have to correct Trump’s COVID-19 statements, FCC says

Enlarge / President Donald Trump holds a press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on April 5, 2020, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Sarah Silbiger)

The Federal Communications Commission has rejected a request to investigate TV stations' handling of President Donald Trump's coronavirus press conferences.

Advocacy group Free Press' emergency petition asking the FCC to investigate said that TV broadcasters' "context-less coverage of President Donald Trump's press conferences and other statements" may violate the broadcast-hoax rule. Denying the petition today, the FCC said that Free Press "misconstrues the Commission's rules and seeks remedies that would dangerously curtail the freedom of the press embodied in the First Amendment."

Free Press' petition said that "broadcasters are prohibited from knowingly airing false information about a catastrophe that causes 'substantial public harm.'" Under FCC guidelines, broadcasters can avoid violating the hoax rule by including a disclaimer that "clearly characterizes the program as a fiction and is presented in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances."

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