President Obama's FCC Orders an Early License Review of the Network That Mocks Him

WASHINGTON — A broadcast network sued the federal government this week, arguing that President Obama's communications regulators had ordered an unusually early review of its licenses for the unusual reason that the President keeps saying, in public, that he wants the network punished.

The agency's chairman replied that no decision had been made and that everyone would get a fair shake, a reassurance somewhat undercut by the years-ahead-of-schedule timing and by the President's habit of naming the specific comedians and talk shows he would like reviewed.

The suit opens with the line that government censorship is deeply un-American, a sentiment that enjoys unanimous support right up until the moment one's own side controls the licenses, at which point it becomes a nuanced question about broadcasting in the public interest.

The Press's First Amendment desk notes that a regulator scrutinizing a broadcaster it dislikes is either standing up for the public airwaves or running a protection racket, depending solely on whether the jokes are about your president or theirs, and that the vocabulary swaps the instant the channel changes.

"They can do this the easy way or the hard way," the chairman had earlier offered — a phrase the Press notes is more commonly associated with the movies the network is not allowed to make about him.

At press time the transmission tower stood in the public airwaves, awaiting either a fair shake or a change in which party believes the government should pick the channel.