Surviving Autocracy

by Masha Gessen

Then he wanted the Senate Intelligence Committee to go after journalists, “to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!” Then, in October 2017: “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” The Federal Communications Commission is not the military, and Trump could not tell it what to do, by tweet or by any other means. Nor does NBC itself hold a broadcast license: its local affiliate stations do. But battles over licenses in local markets are conceivable, and Trump’s tweet could be interpreted as a call to wage those battles. The New York Times reminded its readers that such a call was not without precedent in presidential history: Richard Nixon encouraged a business associate to challenge a license held by a Washington Post–owned television station in Florida, and Nixon’s Justice Department went after the three major networks on antitrust grounds. Deploying laws and institutions designed for liberal democracy to restrict media freedom is essential to autocratic attempts. Putin has used economic instruments, from hostile takeovers of media companies to libel suits that have bankrupted journalists and entire news outlets.