Trump threatens to revoke broadcast license of CBS television station for false reporting

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to revoke the broadcasting license of the CBS television company and the 60 Minutes program for the stories about the conflict in Ukraine and a report from Greenland, which, according to the Republican, contain slanderous information about him. BelTA reports citing TASS.

"I am so honored to be suing 60 Minutes, CBS Fake News, and Paramount, over their fraudulent, beyond recognition, reporting," Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform. "They are not a ‘news show,’ but a dishonest political operative simply disguised as ‘news,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing. They should lose their license!" he added, expressing hope that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission "will impose the maximum fines and punishment."

On Sunday, April 13, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired an interview with Vladimir Zelensky, who criticized the Trump administration’s approach to the conflict in Ukraine, and a report from Greenland, in which the island’s residents spoke out against the idea of joining the U.S. According to the American leader "Almost every week, 60 Minutes mentions the name ‘Trump’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this weekend’s ‘broadcast’ tops them all. They did not one, but two, major stories on ‘Trump,’ one having to do with Ukraine, which I say is a war that would never have happened if the 2020 Election had not been rigged, in other words, if I were president and, the other story was having to do with Greenland, casting our country, as led by me, falsely, inaccurately, and fraudulently," the US leader commented.

Even before winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Trump sued CBS News for editing an interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. He demanded a jury trial for the case and compensatory damages of at least $10 billion over CBS’s "ongoing false, misleading, and deceptive acts."

Trump’s election team demanded in the first half of October that CBS publish the unedited version of Harris’s interview. Republican presidential candidate was confident that the producers of the 60 Minutes show "sliced and diced" Harris’s answers. He also suggested that the incident might be a violation of campaign funding rules, requiring an immediate investigation and public apologies. Trump called the situation "an obvious manifestation of fake news".